“Every day for the thief they say, one good day for the owner” Thus, nemesis finally caught up with a 33-year-old man, Nkemakonam Nwoke who confessed to have penchant for abusing and molesting under-aged kids.
The residents of the street where he resides in Enugu state are still dumbfounded and yet to come to terms with the recent confession of the pedophile as he claimed he has defiled eight female kids of ages ranging between 3 and 6 years at their neighborhood.
Nwoke who lives at 7, Chief Nwatu Street Emene, has been like a thief, stealing the ‘pride’ of little girls unnoticed until the bubble busted and one of the girls who could no longer cope with the pains confided in her mother that their ‘uncle’ had been touching them in their private parts. The woman drew her daughter close while probing further, and she confessed that the man was doing ‘bad bad’ things to eight of them, one after the other.
Other parents were involved and subsequently an NGO; Mediating for the Less Privileged and Women Development, was contacted and the man was arrested.
Dr. (Mrs.) Betty Agujiobi who runs the NGO narrated her encounter with the remorseful pedophile.
”When I came to Emene, I had a long time chat with the accused. Nkem admitted that he had been defiling the children for over one year. When I asked him why children? He said he did not know why he gets pleasure from having sexual relationship with children. He said he’s shy and can’t talk to mature girls. I probed further to find out if probably he used his fingers or his manhood and he told me he didn’t use his fingers but his manhood. The oldest amongst his victims appeared to be very shy to say what the young man had been doing with them.
Others told me what happened and they spoke in Igbo saying Nkem na eme anyi ihe aruruala (Nkem does bad-bad things to us). I asked further to find out the type of bad things he was doing to them, and they explained further. They had no option but to contact the police. The police came and arrested the man and he told them the truth. He said he would not deny it and that probably God wanted to expose him.”
The fear of the risk of HIV/AIDS also made the parents run a test on all the children, luckily for them they all tested negative but positive to other sexual transmitted diseases and were placed on drugs.
All eight children live in a cluster settlement in the same vicinity at a low-income settlement at Emene where anyone who owned a television is seen as a lord. It was further revealed that the young man entices these kids with the said television set. He sends them on an errand to buy biscuit from a distance, quite far from his home in order to molest them one after the other.
However, the Nkem has been arraigned before an Enugu East Chief Magistrate Court and remanded in prison custody, while his file has also been transferred to the Director of Public Prosecution.