One of Nigeria’s senior lawyers, Mike Ozekhome, has cautioned parents of the 16 year-old girl who was raped in Osun State against accepting monetary settlement from the suspected rapist.
Already, the girl has threatened to commit suicide if the suspect is allowed to pay his way out of the crime.
The girl’s is said to have made the threat following speculations that the case against her rapist was going to be dropped for an out-of-court settlement.
The suspect, 38-year-old Habeebulah Abdulrahman is standing trial before an Ede Magistrate Court presided over A. A Olowolagba.
But in a communication with The NEXT EDITION on Saturday night, Mr. Ozhekome, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) argued that the teenager can only sue through her guardian or next-of-kin, such as her father and mother.
He, however, insisted it must be understood that it was the girl who was brutally raped and not the parents.
“He who wears the shoes knows where they pinch. Her views and consent cannot, therefore, be taken lightly or for granted, as if she was of no consequence or as if she were a piece of purchasable furniture whose worth and disposal can be cheaply negotiated willy-nilly,” Mr. Ozekhome argued.
“How can the parents attempt to shave their daughter’s head in her absence? I suspect there is an aspect of the whole so-called settlement agreement saga allegedly struck between the accused and the victim’s family that is still shrouded in mystery and secrecy- money.
“The family must have been promised some huge mouth-watering restitution fee. Otherwise, there is nothing apparent in the so-called settlement terms that are in any way beneficial or of utilitarian value to the victim.
The legal luminary also faulted the settlement terms which included the accused admitting the crime, apologizing to the victim and her family and payment of the victim’s medical bills.
The suspect is also expected to recant his earlier denials on the social media that he did not rape the innocent girl.
Mr. Ozekhome averred that if undisclosed money was not involved, the victim’s counsel should have been fully involved in the settlement process.
“Otherwise, the young girl’s consent and his brother’s input (he was allegedly slapped twice and disallowed from speaking during the meeting) ought to have been first sought and had,” the senior lawyer argued.
He insisted that with the girl threatening suicide, the chicken have finally come home to roost, adding that the victim has put her family in what he described as, “a jam, a messy big jam.”
Mr. Ozekhome, therefore, admonished parents to protect their children even as he urged the children to obey their parents.
Mr. Abdulrahman, an Islamic cleric popularly known as Al-Edewy and his family had proposed to N17 million for raping the girl.
He was said to have committed the crime in his Islamic school where the victim attended in in Ede, Osun State.
When confronted, the cleric admitted sleeping with the girl but claimed he had married her a day before the first rape incident.
Mr Abdulrahman could not, however, provide any evidence of marriage when the girl and her family debunked the marriage claims.