An Ondo state based Journalist, Lanre Duyile has raised the alarm over an alleged cover up by the Police of a case involving his eight year Old son who was allegedly defiled by a 17 year old boy in Ondo.
Duyile specifically accused the Divisional Police Officer ( DPO) of Fagun Police station, Ondo of releasing the 17 year old boy who had been secretly having canal knowledge of his son for a long time.
Duyile who looked distraught while narrating the ordeal of his son to newsmen on Sunday, said his son was always kept in the custody of his neighbor after school hours.
He narrated that himself and his wife had no knowledge that the young boy was always abused by a much older person in the house.
He said his son’s abuser, after sodomising him, threatened him not to tell anyone, else something terrible will happen to him.
“Each time we go to work, my kids stay with them when they come back from school. Unknowingly to me, my neighbors’s son has been having carnal knowledge of my son
“The boy is a student of St Joseph College. He is 17 years old while my son is 8 years.He’s been having anal sex with him for a long time
“How I got to know was that each time I come home from work, I usually take my son out for a stroll. I then realiase that he was touching people’s private part in public but I didn’t even pay much attention until someone brought it to my notice
“So I threatened him when we got home and he confessed that my neighbor’s son has been sleeping with him a long time and had threatened him not to tell anybody ” he narrated.
Duyile said he then got the suspect arrested at Fagun station after which the family came to beg that the matter should be resolved amicably which he agreed to but the DPO insisted the case would be charged to court.
According to Duyile, he had hardly got home, when he got wind of the boy’s release even without his consent.
“Immediately I got the boy arrested at the Fagun Police station, his family came to beg me that we should settle amicably, and I initially agreed.
“So we went to the station to end the case and release the boy. On getting there, the DPO in my presence said they should charge the boy to court the following Monday so I left but before I got home, I discovered they had released the boy
“They released him without my knowledge, and I became angry and said the whole world must know what happened to my boy.” He said.
He accused the police of also not being interested in how to conduct a medical report for his son having told him to go get it done on his one bill.
” The family is to be responsible for the medical report of my boy but they abandoned me with the report alone, so I sense a connivance with the police, particularly the DPO in a bid to sweep the matter under the carpet. ”
He said his boy is already traumatised, crying all day and begging for a new environment.
In his reaction, spokesman of the Ondo police command, Femi Joseph denied allegations that the police is trying to cover up the case.
Joseph said information at his disposal from the DPO said Mr Duyile refused to show up so that they could conduct the medical report for his son being a principal witness when the case is charged to court.
“The father of the abused boy is the one foot dragging and refusing to show up for medical report for the his son. The police is ready to take the case to Court” Joseph said.
But Duyile said the police is only being economical with the truth as the police specifically told him to go and sort out the medicals himself.
Meanwhile, a Lagos based nongovernmental organization, Center for Children’s Health Education, Orientation and Protection (CEE-HOPE) has taken up the case it described as saddening.
Betty Abah, the Executive Director of CEE-HOPE, urged the police to do the needful as it was already sending petitions to appropriate quarters to prevent a cover up in the case.
” We are surprised that the police allowed the suspect go home within 12 hours he was arrested. We are in touch with the father of the boy, sent him some resources to conduct tests for the boy. We are committed to ensure there is justice “
Efforts to reach the mother of the suspect identified as mama Lekan to get her side of the story proved abortive as she insisted we called a wrong number after refusing to pick the calls even with different numbers.
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