Rebecca Ejifoma
An 80-year-old HIV positive landlord, Mr. Ebenezer Oyewole, of 29 Aranseolu Street, Orile, Agege is currently facing charges at the Sam Ilori Court Ikeja for allegedly defiling tenants’ aged nine, six, three and one year old girls.
Oyewole, who is the landlord of the compound, is accused of having sexual intercourse with the three minors and fingered the genitals of a nine-year-old despite his HIV status.
Other charges preferred against the landlord include sexually abusing the nine year old, elder sister to the six years old, since she was age two.
The distraught father of the six-year-old and the nine-year-old only learnt of the abuse of his daughters at the Gender Unit Ikeja on Tuesday.
The mother of the two abused daughters, Mrs. A said that when her nine-year-old daughter “kept complaining that baba was putting his finger into her ‘private,’ I warned her not to go near Baba again,” she said.
Meanwhile, the Director, Stop the Abuse Against Women and Children Foundation, Ms. Toyin Taiwo-Ojo, told THISDAY that carelessness, ignorance and poverty were at work.
“The painful thing is that Baba was using Jesus to swear even when the little girl answered unequivocally in his presence that he has been defiling them.
“The father (name withheld), wants us to help him get justice but his fear is that Baba is very diabolical. He would prefer to move away from the compound to be able to protect his two children who would become the star witnesses in this case. We agreed to assist in that area,” she bemoaned.
Although preliminary examination result at Mirabel Centre showed that the children are HIV negative, another test would be needed to confirm the status after three months.
Other residents, however, complained that something drastic needed to be done to end Oyewole’s excesses, which has gotten out of hand.
The alleged serial paedophile, who was arraigned at the Sam Ilori Magistrate Court on July 14, be remanded in prison custody pending trial on August 27.
Reacting to the Tuesday hearing, Taiwo-Ojo, commended the offices of the Directorate of Public Prosecution, CAVPN, the Stop the Abuse Foundation and the Gender Department of the Lagos State Police Command for taking an unshakeable stance against child abuse in the state, especially in this matter.
“We have collectively shown that no matter the age, class or gender of the perpetrator, justice cannot be swayed,” he commended
