Omowunmi, the mother of the 10 year old girl (names withheld) allegedly defiled by a co-tenant , Mayowa Adeyemi, is now being threatened with eviction from her one-room boys squatter apartment at Miyaki, Oworonshoki by her landlord.

In spite of the psychological and traumatic experience she has been going through after the incident, the woman said she is also under pressure by her landlord simply called Baba Sulia and a lawyer called Kayode, who is representing the interest of the man who allegedly defiled her daughter to settle out of court and accept N100,000 compensation.

Those who are also pleading with her to settle out of court and accept monetary compensation include the siblings of the defendant and a lady who lives in Bourdillon said to be a benefactor of the perpetrator of the dastardly act.

Mayowa who is alleged to have defiled the child is presently being tried by the Police at an Ikeja Chief Magistrate court sitting in Ogba.

He was arraigned before the court presided by Chief Magistrate Y. J. Badejo-Okusanya on charges bordering on child molestation and defilement on Monday August 24, 2015 and is presently in prison custody on the order of the court while the matter had been adjourned till October 12, 2015 for continuation of trial.

Mayowa was arraigned by the police before the court following the outcome of the examination carried out on his victim at the Mirabel Centre, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH), Ikeja.

From the Mirabel Centre, Omowunmi was referred to the Domestic and Sexual Violence Response Team (DSVRT) upon the medical evidences discovered by the centre corroborated the oral testimony of the victim, hence the commencement of his trial.

Omowunmi said she woke up in the middle of the night on August 18, 2015 only to discover semen on the thigh and vagina of her nine year old daughter.

Upon enquiry, the victim told her mother that her neighbour, Mayowa forcibly had canal knowledge of her.

Asked why she did not cried out, the victim said her assailant covered her mouth with a pillow and threatened to kill her if she told anyone.

Upon the confession of the victim, the mother said she quickly called the RRS team who arrested the defendant and took them to Oworonshoki Police station.

She said they were referred to Mirabel Centre by the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) Aisha for further test after her initial examination of the victim and based on what she discovered in the vagina of the victim.

In spite of this development, the mother of two said she is being threatened with eviction from her one-room apartment despite that she has a subsisting tenancy arrangement on the house which she moved into December last year after paying for a two year tenancy arrangement with her landlord.

While the lawyer was pressuring her to accept N100,000 as compensation on behalf of the victim, her landlord, simply called Baba Sulia threatened her with eviction because he was not consulted and given opportunity to intervene in the crisis between her and her neighbour in order to achieve amicable settlement between them before inviting the Police into the matter.

She said in addition that her landlord and wife have continuosly abused her in the most unprintable languages for refusing to drop the case instituted by the Police against Mayowa.

She said she no longer feel safe in the house as the senior brother to her daughter’s assailant may have also been monitoring her movement as he daily, asked of her movement since the incident occurred two weeks ago.

The threat of eviction of Omowunmi by her landlord is now being handled by the Citizen’s Mediation Centre(CMC) an agency of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice.

The DSVRT Coordinator, Lola Vivour-Adeniyi said all those pressurizing the mother of the victim to drop the case have all been informed that these are issues that the state government is interested in and that the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) had already requested for the duplicate of the case file to be forwarded to the office.

Vivour-Adeniyi said the case epitomizes the undue external pressures faced by victims and their relatives to have these matters settled out of court. She stressed that the state government is however determined to ensure that justice is done in the matter.

She said issues of rape, child defilement and other forms of domestic violence are crimes committed against the State and only the Attorney-General has the power to discontinue a matter. Victims should therefore be encouraged to speak out and urged members of community to desist from pressurizing victims to settle out of court.

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