Apparently jittery of for the heavy
clamp down on corrupt officials of the past administration, by the Buhari
government, former special adviser to ex-president Goodluck Jonathan on Niger
Delta and chairman of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Hon. Kingsley Kuku,
has asked the Economic and Financial Cries Commission (EFCC), not to tamper
with the account of his charity organisation.
Kuku made this known yesterday
in a telephone interview from his hospital bed in the United States during
which he said no public fund was in charity account.
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| Hon Kuku |
The former special adviser said
the account which is used to operate his foundation, Keketobou Care Foundation,
named after his mother, Mrs Keketobou Kuku, has been used to help the poor in
the society, especially, indigent students, widows, women and men.
Kuku was reacting to reports
that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has frozen the
accounts of close allies of former President Goodluck Jonathan, including the
Keketobou Care Foundation, which he runs.
The former presidential aide,
who is recuperating in an American hospital after a knee surgery,
said there were no government funds in the said account, which he said, had a
total deposit of N720,484 as at the end of July this year.
According to Kuku, the amount
found in the account was the proceeds from the launch of his book: “Remaking
the Niger Delta: Challenges and Opportunities.”
He said before now, he had used
his personal earnings and other donations by well-wishers to fund the account
so as to provide enough funds for buying JAMB forms for poor indigenes of Ondo
State and provide support to poor widows, women and traders in the state.
“I have always been using the
Keketobou Care Foundation to help the poor and there is no evidence that the
account has ever been funded with government money, as the records would show,”
Kuku said.
He described as unfortunate any
attempt by the EFCC or any other anti-craft agency to flag the
account, saying that it was a politically-motivated move to implicate him and
others who worked with Jonathan.
A seven-year-old
girl (names withheld) has narrated how her father paid her after sexually
abusing her at their Ojokoro Housing Estate, Meiran, Ijaiye, Lagos, residence.
The primary three pupil said:
“My daddy usually gives me money after touching my private part or putting his
penis in my mouth. He touches my private part when my mother is outside washing
clothes or when she is not in the house.”
The victim’s father, identified
as Chukwuemeka Odunzie, allegedly started defiling his daughter early last
year.
Narrating her ordeal, the
victim’s mother, Mrs Odunzie, said: “Last year, my son told me that his younger
sister was fond of playing with her private parts. It sounded strange that a
seven-year-old child would be doing that.
“I will talk to her, scold her
and sometimes beat her. There was a time I told my husband.
“All he said was that if she was
acting strangely I should take her to any of these white garment churches. I
was alarmed when one day, while we were in the sitting room, she started
touching and playing with herself.
She confesses to mother
“Immediately, I called her
inside the room and asked her what the problem was. I asked her if anyone was
fiddling with her private parts. She said it was her father that always touched
her private parts and that after touching her private parts, he would give her
money.
“I confronted my husband when he
returned from work but he denied vehemently. I reported a case of defilement to
Ebenezer Divisional Police and the policemen invited my husband for
questioning.
“He was arrested later by the
police, who gave me a report to take my daughter to the hospital. The doctor
said there had been no penetration, but that there is an opening in her
virginal and advised that the victim be tested for infection.
Family fights back
“By the time we came back from
the hospital, the IPO said it was a family issue and that we should go home and
settle the case.
“Members of his family were
shouting, saying that I had no right to report the case to the police, that it
was a family issue that should be treated as one. They pressurized me till I
withdrew the case, after which he promised not to defile our daughter again.
“After I withdrew the case, my
husband began to beat the children at the slightest provocation. And at times,
he would beat them for no tangible reason.
“Two weeks ago, it happened
again. I asked her what she did for her father that made him give her money without
giving her siblings. That was when she said that daddy gave her the money after
touching her private part.
“Her siblings said it had been
ongoing for a while and that they refused to tell me because the last time they
did, their daddy kept beating them.
“Penis forced into mouth”
“Her brother said whenever I was
not around, or I was outside washing clothes, daddy would send him and his
other siblings inside the bedroom, while he would ask the victim to kneel down
in between his legs and bend her head towards his manhood.
“She also confirmed that after
touching her, daddy would put his penis in her mouth.
“There was even a time my
daughter was caught in the act with a four-year-old boy, who is a neighbour’s
child.”
In his defense, the victim’s
father, Chukwuemeka Odunzie, admitted that it was only once he abused his
daughter and that he was not doing it for occult reasons.
Reacting to the issue, the
Co-coordinator, Project Alert, Josephine Effah Chukwuma, said: “Apart from
ensuring that the law takes it course, the main task is how to rehabilitate
this little girl, whose life has been messed up by her father.
“This is because the abuse was
not a one-off thing as the victim had become so accustomed to the act, that
when she feels the urge and there is no one to touch her, she touches herself.
“There is need to rehabilitate
her and her siblings, who watched.”
Source: Vanguard
