NEWS AGENCY OF NIGERIA
FCTA pledges justice for 14-year-old girl allegedly raped by cleric 
Health

FCTA pledges justice for 14-year-old girl allegedly raped by cleric 

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By Philip Yatai

The Women Affairs Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has vowed to ensure justice for a 14-year-old girl allegedly raped by a cleric in Gwagwalada.

The cleric, Pst. Amos Isah, currently in police custody, is the founder and lead pastor of Prophetic Victory Voice of Fire Ministry in Gwagwalada, Abuja.

The Mandate Secretary of the secretariat, Dr Adedayo Benjamins-Laniyi, said in a statement in Abuja on Thursday, that the administration would pursue the case to a logical conclusion.

Declaring zero tolerance to rape in the FCT, Benjamins-Laniyi reiterated the administration’s commitment to protecting, preserving and safeguarding the rights and the dignity of all children in the FCT.

“This commitment is in tandem with Section 1 of the Child Rights Act Act, 2003.

“FCT will not harbour and provide a safe haven for any paedophile, whoever he or she may be when caught.

“We will ensure that justice is served at all times when the rights of our children are violated,” she added.

She said that the secretariat was already in contact with relevant stakeholders in the pursuit of justice to the rape survivor.

“I am following up with the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria and President of Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, FCT Chapter over the issue.

“I have also gone to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution to the Federation and Deputy Commissioner of Police Rita Emesim, in-charge of Gender, all in pursuit of justice to the rape survivor.

“I have equally directed the Director, Child Department of the Women’s Affairs Secretariat to visit the family of the victim.

“The director had visited the family, discussed and assured them of the FCTA’s commitment to get justice for their only daughter,” she said.

Benjamins-Laniyi assured residents that the matter was being handled by the FCT Administration with all the commitment it deserved.

This, she said, was in line with FCT’s zero tolerance to all forms of gender-based violence and rape.

“Whoever perpetrates such acts, no matter how highly placed, will be prosecuted and face the wrath of the law with no fear or favour.

“The matter of adolescent girls is a priority intervention for the women affair’s secretariat because of their vulnerability at that stage in their development.

“This is a priority for us. We shall follow it through. Nobody will be covered,” she said.

The mandate secretary also warned that a legal action would be taken against those sharing the picture of the survivor on social media.

She particularly called on one Isaiah Gbangbala, a social media influencer to stop posting the victim’s picture on his face book page in an attempt to discredit her, describing it as simply “cyberbullying”.

According to her, the girl and her parents are already traumatised with ongoing negative social media campaigns compounding their mental state.

“The survivor is not only traumatised but also facing serious health challenges after the incident.

“She had been bleeding accompanied by severe pains and had to be pulled out of school and rushed to the hospital for medical attention.”

On her part, Emesim assured residents that hopefully by Thursday, the suspect would be charged to court.

She dismissed social media claims that the police was keeping the suspect without charging him to court and considering releasing him saying, “this is a rape case and rape is a federal offence.

“We cannot charge a rape case to a Magistrate Court, it has to be in a Federal High Court and it is not just charging a case to court, we need conviction and for us to get conviction, we need to do due diligence,” she said.

She said that the matter was being handled without prejudice to the accused, adding that if convicted would bear the brunt of the law.

News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the suspect, Isah was detained by the police following a petition by the victim and her parents, alleging that the suspect lured her into his office and raped her on May 26.

The victim, a Senior Secondary School II student and member of the church’s Media Unit further alleged that following the rape, her hymen broke and she began bleeding from her vagina.

She added that on seeing this, the suspect gave her N3,000 and threatened to kill her if she revealed the incident to anyone. (NAN)

Edited by Abiemwense Moru

U.S. to execute man convicted of rape, murder
Foreign

U.S. to execute man convicted of rape, murder

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A U.S. citizen is scheduled to be executed in Alabama on Thursday evening after dropping his appeals, saying he was guilty of raping and murdering a woman in 2010.

The convict said he did not want to keep “wasting everybody’s time” and money.

James Osgood, 55, will be executed by lethal injection at 6 p.m. CDT at William Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama.

This will make him join the approximately one in 10 people on death rows across America who have asked for their own executions.

A jury convicted Osgood of capital murder for the killing of Tracy Lynn Brown in Chilton County.

Prosecutors said Osgood cut Brown’s throat after he and his girlfriend sexually assaulted her.

Osgood told The Associated Press that he wanted to apologise to Brown’s family and that he dropped his appeals because, “I am guilty of murder.”

In a letter to his lawyer explaining his decision to seek an execution date, he wrote that he was tired and no longer felt like he was “even existing.”

“I’m a firm believer in, like I said in court, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. I took a life so mine was forfeited.

“I don’t believe in sitting here and wasting everybody’s time and everybody’s money,” Osgood told the AP.

Brown was found dead in her home on Oct. 23, 2010.

Prosecutors said Osgood admitted to police that he and his girlfriend sexually assaulted Brown, and forced her to perform sex acts.

These, they said, was after discussing how they had fantasies about kidnapping and torturing someone.

Then he cut her throat.

His girlfriend, who was Brown’s cousin, was sentenced to life in prison.

“I can’t imagine anyone doing that to someone, even their worst enemy. I don’t know what kind of mind has that kind of thinking,” Jackie Wileman, Brown’s stepmother, told the judge at Osgood’s 2014 sentencing hearing.

In handing down the death sentence, the judge noted that Osgood had a difficult childhood that included sexual abuse, abandonment and a suicide attempt.

The judge, however, also said that it was Osgood who cut Brown’s neck and stabbed her as she begged the couple not to hurt her.

Osgood said last week that he regretted all the “pain and suffering” he had caused Brown’s family, and his own.

“I would like to say to the victim’s family, I apologize,” Osgood said.

“I’m not going to ask their forgiveness because I know they can’t give it, only God can grant forgiveness,” he said.

Osgood’s initial death sentence was thrown out by an appeals court ruling that jurors were given improper instructions.

At his re-sentencing in 2018, Osgood asked to be executed, saying he didn’t want the families to endure another hearing.

The Death Penalty Information Center reported last year that 165 of the people were executed since a moratorium on the death penalty ended in 1977.

The total of people who asked to be put to death has since grown to more than 1650.

The center also said that the overwhelming majority of these volunteers had histories of mental illness, substance abuse or suicidal ideation.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey made a rare move this year to grant clemency to another death row inmate, commuting the death sentence of Robin “Rocky” Myers to life in prison.

The governor said there were enough questions about his guilt that she could not move forward with his execution.

It was the only time Ivey had granted clemency, and the first time any Alabama governor commuted a death sentence since 1999.(AP/NAN)

Edited by Mark Longyen

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