The seven-year-old had spent just one academic term at his new school in Abuja when he told his mother he would not be returning to the institution, a special facility for children with disability. Using sign language, the boy, born with speech and hearing impairment, said he feared he may be killed.Alarmed, Mrs Usman, a medical doctor, pressed for details. The boy motioned about being sodomised and being forced to perform oral sex on older school mates.
The report, first by the Abuja-based Human Rights Radio, that a child with a disability was sexually abused at a school his family hoped will help him with care, terrified parents and angered rights advocates, not less because it happened in the nation’s capital.
Another parent, Hassula Saleh, told PREMIUM TIMES his son had done a session of three academic terms in the school and “so far it’s been good”. Vincent Iyerima, who heads the parents-teachers’ association, said his daughter was in the school and “she will tell me if she hears such.”But the police reported differently. While not proving widespread incidents of sexual violations, they cited medical evaluation by the National Hospital in Abuja and a confession, and concluded the boy was repeatedly penetrated through the anus. The main suspect is 18-year-old Filo Sani, the boy’s school father, who is also physically challenged.
The victim said the school father chained him repeatedly, and once pulled his middle fingernail violently for refusing to comply with directives. He would then be given a handkerchief damped in a liquid with anaesthetic effect so he could inhale and sleep. Back home, he demonstrated that experience using his mother’s perfume.
The National Hospital report confirms Mrs Usman’s son had been abused. Some officials question the claim. Credit: Azeezat Adedigba It was initially funded through the then Family Support Programme, an initiative of Fati Abubakar, wife of former military ruler Abdulsalami Abubakar, but was taken over in 2006 by the Universal Basic Education Board . But parents said the services at the school are below the required standards. The main challenges over the years have been lack of teachers, teaching aids and facilities required to provide education to children with disability.
Staff at the school who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES said Mr Sani took great care of Mrs Usman’s son and regularly cleaned him up when he soiled himself. They refused to believe he would have done him any harm, and suggested Mr Sani could have been tortured by the police to admit abusing the boy.
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