Sodomy in Akwa Ibom: From Land of Promise to Sodom and Gomorrah?
The rising cases of sodomy in Akwa Ibom, involving rape, incest, defilement and other sexual crimes against women and children, despite government’s efforts to arrest the situation, has continued to worry right- thinking people and residents of the Akwa Abasi Ibom State.
Highly noted for their religiousness and strong moral values, it appears the people have been invaded by sex predators and marauders going by increasing incidents of sodomy in Akwa Ibom and other sexual crimes against women and children.
According to the Commissioner for Women Affairs, Dr. Glory Edet, in 2019 alone, the Ministry had attended to over 452 cases of GBV and 18 culprits had been prosecuted while 16 have been sent to different terms of imprisonment.
Particuarly worrisome is the realisation that the perpetrators of dastardly acts are those who supposed to protect the victims: their parents and guardians, pastors as well as uncles and teachers.
The recent nabbing of one Prophet Anietie Inyang in Essien Udim Local Government Area for violating a 12-year-boy is one case of sodomy in Akwa Ibom too many.
Prophet Anietie Inyang nabbed sodomising with 12-year-old boy
In February, 2021, a 31-year-old man, identified as Pastor Anietie Inyang from Ikot Ebak village, Essien Udim Local Government Area, was arrested by the Akwa Ibom State Police Headquarters, Ikot Akpan Abia, Uyo.
Prophet Inyang has been languishing in police custody after being arrested by the police for alledgedly raping a 12-year-old boy from Ikot Obong who is living with his grandmother at Ikot Ada Utor in Afaha Clan also in Essien Udim Local Government Area.
Morenews.ng, who broke the news, reported that there were frantic attempts to cover up the case until the wife of the Chairman of Essien Udim, Mrs Umoh Gabriel Tony Luke alongside her husband, Anthony Luke got wind of the information and ordered the police to produce the suspect before he was re-arrested by men and officers of the Nigeria Police Force, Essien Udim Division.
Morenews.ng also learned that the Akwa Ibom State Sexual and Gender Based Violence Response Unit has taken over the matter.
Sodomy in Deeper Life College, Uyo
The Prophet Anietie Inyang” case occurred barely two months after the state was set on fire by allegation of sodomy of an 11-year-old school boy, Master Don Davies, in Deeper Life High School, Uyo in December, 2020.
The mother of the victim broke the silence in a viral video, claiming that her son was being molested by senior students of the school.
She also alleged attempts by the Principal of the school, Mrs Ndidi Solomon, to sweep the matter under the carpet, in addition to victimising her for speaking up, namely: being removed from the school’s WhatsApp group.
The has attracted the attention of the Akwa Ibom State Government who ordered investigation into the matter.
It also attracted the furry of the management of the school who had since suspended the embattled principal.
Speaking on the matter, the school Principal, Mrs Ndidi Solomon confirmed that Akwa Ibom State Goverrnment has taken over the matter and is currently investigating it.
“Davies is my student I can’t deny it. What happened in the school is what the outsider cannot understand. The matter is under investigation now because the government has taken over,” Ndidi said.
“I won’t be able to talk much now because I am also under investigation. The School authorities have already suspended me. So, I am going to plead for patience until the government completes its investigation. The police and DSS are involved,” the principal admitted.
Although the authority of Deeper Life High School has denied past allegations of molestation in the school, media reports say it has also commenced an internal investigation into the matter but would wait for the outcome of the investigation by state government.
Rapes and Sodomy in Akwa Ibom in 2020
In June 2020, the Akwa Ibom State Police Commands arrested a 60-year-old village head of Ikot Inyang, Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area, Etteidung Stephen Uyoe, for allegedly raping an 11-year-old girl.
That same month, the police arrested one Pastor Victor Victor David in Etim Ekpo Local Government Area for violating an 8-year-old girl.
Similarly, on May 28, 2020, police nabbed a 30-year-old man, Okon Henry, a native of Mbokpueyokan in Urue-Offong Oruko Local Government Area for forcefully defiling his 17-year-old niece.
On 13th June, 2020, operatives of ‘C’ Division arrested one Solomon Okon and Becky Umoretuk who conspired and lured a 26-yr-old lady to their house and unlawfully assaulted her with fist blow and machete, and in the process, Solomon Okon forcefully had unlawful carnal knowledge of the victim.
The police said the girl went for “counselling and deliverance” fixed by the suspect.
“While she was in the prophet’s counselling room, the suspect administered an intoxicating liquid substance to the victim and thereafter took advantage of the victim and had unlawful carnal knowledge of her,” police said.
Mr Jacob is the second pastor to be arrested for rape in Akwa Ibom in less than a month that year.
The police had earlier arrested a pastor for keeping eight teenage girls, between the ages of 13 and 16, in a so-called deliverance centre and allegedly raping one of them said to be 15 years old.
The pastor, Inimfon Eyo Inyang, 33, who was among the 12 people arrested for rape in the state, also attempted to rape a 21-year-old girl.
Raped by ‘fathers’
Stories abound of a perculiar sodomy in Akwa Ibom where men, including fathers, turned their daughters into sex slaves.
In 2019, the Akwa Ibom State Command paraded a young man, a pastor, who deflowered a little girl left under his custody by the mother.
It was understood that the man was the little girl’s mother’s lover.
“I begged him, I begged that uncle to allow me to sleep with my younger sister that night who is six, but he refused! he insisted I should not wake my sister who was fast asleep, I watched him as he hurriedly pulled his trousers, removed his boxers, applied cream on my body and his. I was crying, he never moved, he held me down and raped me that night.
“But my sister later woke up and joined me to weep without knowing what happened. The uncle was angry, he flogged my sister for crying, later, he told neighbours that he flogged us because we urinated in bed,” the little girl told the police.
According to Akwa Ibom State Police Relations Officer, Odiko MacDon, the suspect, Rev. Anwanga Essien, is a pastor with the Restoration Bible Church, Itiam Street, Uyo, and the victim, his step-daughter.
Investigation revealed that the rapist pastor had deceived the victim’s mother, got her pregnant and forced her to abandon her matrimonial home to live with him.
When Joseph raped daughter on Sunday
Particuarly debasing is when fathers defile even their biological daughters.
A case in point was when one Joseph Sunday of Obot Ideng, Ibesikpo Local Government who reportedly violated his two daughters, aged nine and 13 for more than three years under the pretext of testing whether his manhood was still active.
“My wife left me three years ago because of some family issues and relocated to Rivers State. I have been the only one taking care of my daughters. I just want to test if my manhood is still functional using my daughters,” he said.
Casting the demons sexually
Rumour of self-acclaimed men of God who end up sleeping with young girls in the name of casting demons out of them is another aspect of sodomy in Akwa Ibom that has been troubling the government and people of the state.
For instance, The Daily Post reported that a prophet of a new generation church once prophesied that a little girl was a witch and lured the parents to bring the child to his house to exorcise the “demons.”
After sending the parents away, the fake man of God alledgedly defiled the six-year-old girl.
Incest in the Vestry
Another detestable sodomy in Akwa Ibom is a situation where people who claim to represent God have carnal knowledge of their own daughters inside the church in what looks like sacrifice to the sex gods.
An incident involving one Okon Bassey aged 40 and presiding pastor of Mount Zion Light House Full Gospel, Obio Imo Lane, Uyo is still fresh in peoples’ memories.
Pastor Okon Bassey was paradwd for sleeping with his daughter for over seven years.
Police statement accused the cleric of beginning to have sex with his daughter when she was 13 inside the church vestry.
The victim, a secondary school student, claimed the father demands sex from her before paying her school fees or meeting any of her basic needs without the knowledge of her mother, adding that she got pregnant for her father three times and three times they were all aborted by the mother.
That dimension tended to suggest that there was a cover-up probably to protect image of the family.
After keeping the ‘secret,’ for over seven years, the victim decided to let the cat out of the bag when she clocked 20 years.
Defiling the Toddler
The question buckling the minds of most people is : What pleasure does a man derive from defiling a toddler?
But that was a case of one Iniobong Okon Moses ‘m’ of Ikot Amupe Obio Offot, Uyo, aged 23, who was arrested on 9th November, 2019 for defiling his two-year-old Step-daughter.
Media reports have it that the suspect had claimed he was drunk that fateful night, came in and saw the little girl, grabbed her and penetrated her, thereby causing severe injuries on the girl’s vagina.
The suspect in an interrogation blamed the incident on alcohol, adding that he mistook the baby for his wife.
Blame it on alcohol
Moses is not the only culprit blaming his devilish act on alcohol. Several perpetrators also passed the buck on the influence of alcohol, another aspect sodomy in Akwa Ibom. Many young men have taken delight in sipping ethanol like garri, ruining their lives in the process.
This development, according to the police, is part of moral bankruptcies in the society.
But no excuse can exonerate culprits for committing crimes and breaking the law especially as more laws and punitive measures have been introduced in the state.
Hard times await rapists in Akwa Ibom
The Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly had passed a bill issuing a capital punishment against persons convicted of rape and other violent crimes in the state.
And the wife of the governor, Dr. Martha Emmanuel, through her Pet Project, Family Empowerment Youth Reorientation Path Initiative, FEYReP, has vowed that it would no longer be business as usual.
Child defilement and rape are among non-bailable offences in Akwa Ibom State and one thing seems certained, hard times await rapists in the state.
