Akwa Ibom State governor’s wife, Her Excellency, Mrs. Martha Udom Emmanuel has made a shocking revelation:
“I don’t know why a man will rape a six-year-old girl; I don’t know why a man will rape a three-year-old girl. I don’t know why a man with four wives will rape a 9-year-old girl. I want to assume these people are animals and they have been convicted as I speak because we followed them till the end. And I told my staff that very soon we are going to show them on television for everybody to see.”
“All the while they have been hiding. This time we are going to show them the way they are because it is getting out of hand. These are people that have children; some have grandchildren. Why do you defile a young girl? What pleasure are you looking for? If I have my way, I know what I can do to such people, but I cannot take the law into my hands. But I want to assure that more rapists will be convicted and rape must come to an end in this state.”
“Before now, women were not talking about rape cases. So a child will be raped, and the mother will not allow the child to talk about it because of stigmatisation or intimidation by the person that raped the child. But we have been sensitising women, talking about it, telling them to voice out, going around schools, emphasising our theme, ‘Girl, uphold your dignity’. I can confidently tell you that when a girl is raped now, she will pick up the telephone and call FEYRep that ‘this is what has happened’. The mother will pick up the telephone and call FEYRep that her daughter has been raped.”
“We have some cases we are handling now. The culprits will be put behind bars while the victims will be taken to hospital for treatment. Very soon we are going to do a walk against rape so that the whole state will know that we frown at the heinous act. And I know it will come to an end because by the time we start dealing with the culprits the way they should, prospective rapists will learn and stay away from the crime.”