THE IGBO GIANT STRIDES AGAINST ALL ODDS
9 years ago
Written By Cosmas Asogwa
Last night, I saw this horrible photo of yet another rape victim that was posted on the Facebook page of African Consultative Forum. Viewer's Discretion Highly Advised (Click Here To See Photo). An edited picture of this gory incidence can be found at the bottom of this page.
Upon sighting this picture, I thought that it must have been a scene from a very horrifying movie I watched many years ago titled: Cannibal Holocaust. The film tells the story of a missing documentary film crew who had gone to the Amazon to film cannibal tribes. A rescue mission, led by the New York University anthropologist Harold Monroe, recovers the missing film crew's lost cans of film. I still remember how Harold Monroe after watching the recovered lost cans of film rhetorically wonders who between the cannibals and the missing film crew were actually the real cannibals.
Cannibal Holocaust achieved notoriety as its graphic violence aroused a great deal of controversy. After its première in Italy, it was seized by a local magistrate, and Deodato was arrested on obscenity charges. He was charged with making a snuff film due to rumors that claimed some actors were killed on camera. Although Deodato was later cleared, the film was banned in Italy, Australia, and several other countries due to its disturbing portrayal of graphic brutality, sexual assault, and animal violence. Some nations have since revoked the ban, but the film is still banned in several countries. Critics have suggested that the film is a commentary about civilized versus uncivilized society. ( c.f Wikipedia)
Now back to our subject matter which Kingsley Udeh posted on the Facebook page of African Consultative Forum thus: Girl raped & tortured to Death With A Huge Wood in Her private part. As Kingsley Udeh notes, he found "this heart breaking picture of this young girl murdered like she was nothing on net this morning. Seriously, I've not been myself since then. The details of where or how the victim was murdered haven't been made known yet but I’ll try get every detailed information about the murder. With the mind of a psychologist, I would say she was kidnapped,raped and intentionally tortured to death by maybe an enemy. It pains me most to know that the wicked barbarians who did this to are out there walking the streets freely.
May God have mercy and bless Nigeria....
Of late there has been a growing wave of reported cases of wide-ranging sexual assaults in the Nigerian society. Among these cases is the widely circulated video of an alleged Abia State University Gang Rape which drew strong condemnation In spite of the outrage provoked by this particular incidence among the Nigerian and international public. Sad enough, not much has been done up till this moment to punish the perpetrators of that dastardly act. The last we heard from the police was that those that raped the lady in question were actually her husband's cousins. Awful.
and another equally despicable case of a Man Allegedly Hiring Two men To Rape His Sisters Over inheritance Disputes. Worse still is that even the law enforcement agents who are supposed to offer security to these victims have themselves been accused of engaging in this crime. a case in hand is that of a Nigerian Police Inspector Investigated For Allegedly Raping 15-Year-Old Niece. The monumental scale of the cases of rape is well highlighted by the disclosure of the Lagos State Attorney- General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr. Ade Ipaye, that 427 rape cases were recorded in Lagos state in 2012.
Briefing news men on the activities of the Ministry of Justice and the rising incidences of rape cases in the country, Ipaye said that Lagos State, through the Office of Public Defence, recorded 427 rape cases in 2012. If that is just the statistic of reported cases in Lagos alone, one can begin to shudder at the likely outlook when statistics of other states are collated.
Briefing news men on the activities of the Ministry of Justice and the rising incidences of rape cases in the country, Ipaye said that Lagos State, through the Office of Public Defence, recorded 427 rape cases in 2012. If that is just the statistic of reported cases in Lagos alone, one can begin to shudder at the likely outlook when statistics of other states are collated.
Another worrying but commonly overlooked kind of sexual assaults has to do with the humiliation often meted out against those caught in the art of stealing. Of late, our social networks have been awash with video clips of especially girls accused of stealing Blackberry phones being stripped naked publicly to the admiration sexual perverts who take turns to fiddle with their victims erogenous zones. This is to say the least disgusting but it is fast becoming a regular trend as video clips of such incidents within minutes of their occurrence are uploaded on various social networks.
These developments are even more worrying given that ours is a highly conservative society where cases of sexual deviance are not readily exposed for fear of the stigma usually and wrongly attached to victims of sexual assault. Except in cases that cannot be hidden perhaps because they are life threatening most often, victims and their relations usually prefer to keep their traumatic experiences to themselves rather than incur the stringent stigmatization of the public.
anomalies but the norm.
What beats my imagination in all these, is the speed at which the public condemnation and outrage usually triggered by these cases soon fizzles out and before long, we continue to live our normal lives as if nothing really happened in the first instance at all. This is very disheartening and obviously not the best way to eliminate a moral and legal crime bedevilling our society. So the task before us is rise up to the challenge and put an end to this madness. This is not a task to be left alone to our law enforcement agents and civil Society Organisations. It is a task that all of us must actively be involved in. A starting point in this campaign is ensuring that the perpetrators of this dastardly acts are brought justice. Unlike, Kingsley Udeh's RIP, I urge the soul of this victim not to rest in peace until her killers are brought to justice.
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