Eight men, including an Imam in Kaduna have allegedly impregnated a 13-year-old primary school girl.
The girl, Maryam Muazu, said to be 5 months pregnant with twins, is currently in primary 6 at L.E.A Anchau, Taka-Lafiya in Kubau local government of Kaduna State.
The parents of Maryam Muazu are threatening to abort the pregnancy to avert public embarrassment.
She was alleged to have been raped by the eight men, including her neighbour, an elderly Imam of a mosque who molested her severely.
Maryam said, “They usually call me and give me N500 naira when l am coming back from school and when I went out hawking, they usually forced me into it, and they have been warning me not to tell my parents, they vowed to kill me if I dared tell my parents.
“They threatened killing me each time they raped me, that is why I refused telling my parents, I was so afraid that is why I kept quiet over the issue.”
Mallam Mu’au Shittu, father of Maryam, said, “Eight men raped my daughter and now she is pregnant, they usually give her money while some give her gifts to have sex with such a young girl when she goes out hawking.
“They usually give her five hundred naira and have sex with her the way they want it, they merely turned her like sex machine.”
Mallam Mu’azu Shittu, said he had taken the case to Upper Sharia Court lkara local government area to seek for justice.
He explained that for the past 5 months, they couldn’t sleep with their eyes closed because of the problems the girl had been going through, adding, “she is too small to be carrying twins, and there is no single one among the rapists that is ready to take the responsibility as father of the unborn babies.”
Mu’azu also pointed out that among the eight (8) men that were alleged as the rapists, one of them is his close neighbour, Alhaji Danlami Sakatare, an lmam.
“Because of what he did to my daughter, I have stopped going to join them in prayer in the mosque because I cannot follow the prayer of a rapist who wants to destroy my family.
“I don’t like a bastard child in my family, that is why l am doing my best to protect the integrity of my family,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the suspected rapists on Friday arraigned and consequently granted bail on Friday.
The father of the victim had also reported the case to a Human Rights Organization in search of justice for his daughter.
Hajiya Rabi Salisu Ibrahim, founder of Arridah Relief foundation of Nigeria, a Non-Governmental Organization in which the case was brought told DAILY POST that ”We received the case in our office.
“For the past two years, we have treated over 400 cases of rape and child abuse but we have never come across this type of inhuman act.“
Another women organization, Foundation for the Protection of Women and Children in Nigeria, has called on Jama’atul nasurl lslam, JNI, and the Kaduna State government to suspend the Imam from leading prayers and give him a tougher punishment to serve as a deterrent to other clerics in the country.
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