IN an unfortunate, recent incident involving unwarranted display of extreme cruelty, a 24-year-old man resident in Ambassadors’ quarters in Katsina, Katsina State, one Usman Mohammed, allegedly raped a 16-year-old girl and threw her into a well after the dastardly act! The girl, a minor under the law, was running an errand for her parents when she was waylaid by Usman who reportedly threatened her with a knife and dragged her into an uncompleted building where he allegedly raped her. And as is common with most criminals, who ordinarily are cowards, Usman thereafter became jittery and afraid of taking responsibility for his action, and therefore sought to obliterate anything that could link him to the awful incident. He cast his victim into a well and hurled stones into it to make her survival and escape from death virtually impossible. Happily, however, he failed.
The police, upon receiving the report of the incident, swiftly swung into action, which culminated in the arrest of Usman and the rescue of the girl. Expectedly, the condition of the girl is described as grave, but she is said to be responding well to treatment in hospital. The question is, how wicked can someone get? Usman was not content with the physical and psychological trauma that non-consensual coitus entailed; he wanted to cut short his victim’s life just so he could go scot-free. After he had committed a flagrant and deplorable breach of the law, Usman thought he needed to engage in another but graver criminal act. He did not care a hoot if the innocent girl died, so long as his liberty was assured. That is tantamount to selfishness and callousness in the extreme.
The sheer preponderance of impure thinking by many, especially the youth, on certain issues today, has become a matter of grave concern. Thinking and acting within the precincts of decency and decorum is increasingly a rarity among young Nigerians. And it is down to the warped moral values over which we have urged reorientation and rearmament rearmament time and again. How do you throw a person into a well after raping her? And the suspect was not done with these acts of extreme wickedness: he hurled stones down the well to crush his victim! Certainly, the suspect has no regard for human life; he is a lawless, irredeemably criminal and incredibly selfish person. And sadly, he is not alone: there are many just like him on the streets out there, people with defective upbringing who are making life a nightmare. Pray, how and why would a well-brought-up young man disrespect a girl, let alone raping and attempting to kill her? What happened to the traditional and time-tested values of decency and the sanctity of human life?
It is sadly the case that people, especially girls, can no longer move around freely and parents can hardly send their children on errands again because there are many beasts and sexual predators on the prowl. The society has truly lost its moral fabric, so much so that certain persons habitually carry out hurtful actions, including those that could cause irreparable damage to their fellow human beings, without blinking. A great deal of intense advocacy is urged to reorient aberrant members of the society on the perils inherent in the single-minded pursuit of objectives, no matter how ignoble. The society must be deliberate and intentional about altering the notorious Machiavellian principle of the “end justifies the means” which has been imbibed by many people but which is flawed in many ways. Due cognisance must be taken of the consequences of actions rather than prioritizing just the outcomes. That is for the long haul. Meanwhile, it may be helpful and important to intensify neighbourhood watchfulness to protect vulnerable members of the community from the deleterious activities of ubiquitous malefactors and sexual predators waiting in the wings. The spate of lawlessness in the country is disturbing, and it is important that leaders and ordinary members of the society collaborate with the security agencies to rein in acts of lawlessness.
We urge that the victim of rape and attempted murder should be officially accorded as much assistance as she may need in order to fully rehabilitate her and also reassure her that she is a wonderful human being, and not a beast as her morally depraved assailant treated her. The chances of the victim collapsing under the psychological trauma of her recent horrible experience are very high. As such, the state should swiftly and robustly come to her aid. Increasingly, it seems, no one is safe in this country. The ease with which people are raped, defiled, kidnapped, maimed and killed is troubling. Governments at all levels are called upon to be alive to their primary responsibility and indeed the very essence of their existence, which is the welfare and security of the citizenry. In addition to taking steps to prevent crimes in the society, the state must ensure that the chances of anyone escaping justice after breaching the law are negligible. If it becomes the rule rather than the exception that lawbreakers are apprehended and punished, aberrant behaviour will reduce drastically. Unfortunately, there is a sense in which a feeling of hopelessness could sway citizens with a weak moral fabric to commit crimes of different hues, including those whose outcomes have little or no connection with the restoration of hope, as in the instant case, but that does not stop the law from taking its course. For instance, today when the paramount concern of the average Nigerian is all about how to stay safe and navigate the current economic hardship in the land, it is unclear how raping and attempting to kill an innocent girl could positively impact the socioeconomic condition of Usman.
The police should launch a painstaking inquiry into the incident and ensure that Usman is charged under the appropriate code and diligently prosecuted. Truth be told, the beastly and extremely callous conduct which involved the alleged sexual violation of an innocent girl and the deliberate attempt at liquidating the victim reflects badly on the Nigerian society. It is yet another low in the seemingly inexorable descent of the country into the abyss. And unless serious and concerted efforts are made by the state and community to arrest the drift, many may continue to buckle under the weight of the overwhelming and multi-pronged challenges besetting the country.
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