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HOW OBONGI SCHOOLS BECAME DANGEROUS FOR THE GIRL-CHILD

Patrick Angala, Obongi district Education officer

FEDERIK DRAMADRI

OBONGI: TUESDAY, 24 DECEMBER 2024

Maureen (Not her Real Name), 16, is a pupil of Yenga Primary School in Morobi refugee cluster, Palorinya Subcounty in Obongi district who has been forced to abandon education due to defilement.

Maureen says she had a romantic affair with a 19-year-old James Moga, a south Sudanese refugee of the same school.

The duo indulged in sexual encounters in the bush on three different occasions which resulted into unwanted pregnancy.

According to the Teenager, upon revealing the pregnancy to her boyfriend, Moga got terrified and quickly asked her to abort the foetus so that the matter won’t be known and followed by the parents of Maureen.

He followed up this demand with the threat to kill the girl if she did not terminate the pregnancy.

“At first, I had rejected but my boyfriend (James Moga) said if I refuse, he will kill me and run back to South Sudan because he does not have money to take care of me and the baby,” she recounts of their conversation.

Maureen reluctantly accepted to carry out the abortion for which Moga reportedly borrowed money from his aunt to buy the abortion pills from a clinic.

But after taking the drugs, the girl felt a piercing pain in the heart, the abdomen and other parts of the body for two days that she was only rolling on the ground and on bed.

This prompted her father, Fred Lodion Duku, to ask his daughter what was happening with her. When she disclosed her ordeal to Duku, he took Maureen to Morobi Health Center III from where the medical reports confirmed that the foetus had died in the womb due to over use of abortion drugs by the girl.

Duku proceeded to Morobi Police Post where a case was registered under the SD REF: 11/21/10/2024 and later the file was transferred to Obongi Central Police Station.

Defilement is a capital offence and depending on the age of the girl, punishments can be by imprisonment or death.

Any unlawful abortion (that is abortion not done on medical grounds) and those who aid a woman in carrying out such unlawful abortion are also liable for severe reprimand of imprisonment ranging from seven years and above.

However, the investigations by the police in Obongi faltered under unclear circumstances, prompting Duku to write complaints to the Resident district commissioner who is the chairman of the district security committee overseeing the police and the district coordination committee of the justice, law and order sector.

A copy of the letter was also given to the District Internal Security Officer, on top of medical forms among other documents.

He expresses bitter feeling over the mismanagement of the case by police at Obongi Central Police station, alleging suspicions of bribery by the suspects relatives at the expense of justice at the police station that resulted into a mysterious disappearance of the suspect.

“Am not happy because of the incident which has happened to my daughter. I feel the pain she is going through; she feels ashamed of going back to school and she has no friends now. This man (Moga) should be jailed or killed because his acts were like to kill my daughter,” Duku lamented.

His daughter Maureen, is one of the hundreds of teenage girls in Obongi district who are facing tough times after been defiled, impregnated and pressured to abort under duress by the would-be husbands.

Many of the perpetrators are fellow pupils, teachers and relatives of the affected girls who often end up being pushed out of school.

Teachers Perpetrating Defilement

At Yenga Primary School in Palorinya Sub County, five girls were defiled, impregnated and abandoned by perpetrators in the months of September, October and November, 2024.

At least two of these defilements were by their own classroom teachers who were said to have been caught in the act by the community members and handed over to the police.

One of the suspects was named as Yiod Avayo, a government employed teacher who is the director of Rhod Darling Nursery and Primary School.

He also doubled as the class master of Primary Seven class. It is alleged that Avayo, who is now on the run, was arrested defiling a 15-year-old Primary Seven girl, Stella (not her real name) in her father’s bedroom.

Rashul Aliga, a staff of Ibweke Health centre II and the uncle to Stella who registered the case SD REF: 09/10/11/2024 against Avayo said it is very unfortunate for such a teacher to indulge in defiling teens and prayed for a faster delivery of justice.

In her statement recorded by the police, Stella disclosed that Avayo initiated a courtship with her on the Independence Day. He bought lunch for the girl during the celebration parade and late in the evening he also bought for her sugarcane which she chewed as they chattered into the night before Avayo took her to a lodge at Keguru trading centre to be defied.

The second offence was committed in the bush while the third was on her father’s bed when they got captured by the neighbours.

“It pains me, if I begin to think about what Avayo was doing to my daughter on my bed. I feel like I should kill him. This incident has tortured my mind. This man must go to prison,” her visibly irate father fumed.

Sijali Abdallah, the deputy head teacher Yenga Primary School, confirmed that the defiled girl is 15 years old as per the records in the school’s registration book.

Samuel Hashaka Mpimbaza, the Obongi Resident District Commissioner (RDC), confirmed that he received a letter of complaint against the police of Obongi Central Police Station from Fred Lodiong Duku, father of the 16-year-old Maureen, dated 16th November, 2024.

Samuel Hashaka Mpimbaza, the Obongi Resident District Commissioner

He called for the intervention of other human right agencies to investigate the complaints of case file mismanagement and the purported escape of suspects of capital offenses in Obongi central police station.

According to Mpimbaza, the rate of defilement in Obongi district is worrying locals and refugees alike, especially as leaders are becoming the culprits and use their positions of influence and financial muscle to bribe their way to freedom.

“I have received the third complaint against the police officers, especially in the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) including the Officer in Charge of Obongi who are frustrating our effort to make sure the suspects appear in court,” admitted Mpimbaza.

He added: “Obongi has high levels of Teenage pregnancies; it has hit the roof, it’s too much. Every school you go to and have a random pregnancy test, you find many girls are pregnant and many girls have disappeared and been married off and these security officers use for making money,” he asserted.

The RDC said this year alone his office recorded seven cases of defilement from Obongi town Primary School, five in Yenga Primary, six in Itula Primary among many others.

He called on the ministry of education and sports to ensure that girls who are victims of defilement return to school after giving birth.

Patrick Angala, the District Education officer of Obongi, testified that in deed some teachers have abandoned teaching out of fear that they would be arrested for defiling their own learners.

Sijali Abudallah, the deputy headteacher of Yenga primary school

“Three of our teachers have abandoned work and are in hiding. The mobile phone network is indicating that one of them is in Jinja but it is very difficult to track and bring these perpetrators to book because there’re a lot of negotiations involved right from the parents of the defiled girls,” Anagala stated.

Last Year 62 school girls got pregnant while 39 girls and 24 boys were forced into early marriage as per records of the education department of Obongi district.

Phillip Akuku Kayakaya, the Principal Education Officer of the neighbouring Adjumani District, said the problem of teenage pregnancy, girls dropping out of school due to defilement and early marriage is not limited to Obongi but a rampant problem across the West Nile region.

He said the school environment is still hostile to the girl-child who have experienced the bitterness of defilement.

“Most of the teachers lack capacity to handle teen mothers in schools on top of other institutional challenges that is pushing the girls away from school,” Kayakaya said.

According to Kayakaya, government should build the capacity of teachers, establish child spaces and safe breastfeeding facilities for the teen mothers.

“Schools do not have facilities to keep babies, have no breastfeeding corners, the capacity of our teachers is not enough, most of the teachers don’t keep secretes, the attitude of teachers and language used is unprofessional as some of them instead of referring to girls, some senior women teachers provoke them by saying ‘you women!’ that is escalating the stigma among the girls hence many of them abandon school.” commented Kayakaya.

According to Ignatius Dragudu, the Police Public Relations officer North West Nile Region, a total of 89 cases of defilement, teenage pregnancies and child marriages were reported at police in Obongi district in just three month, September, October and November and of these cases less than 20 reached the   court.

He attributed the low number of files and cases reaching the courts to insufficient evidence and illegal negotiations that lead to many cases hitting a dead end.

Dragudu admitted that majority of the cases were filed against teachers, and others against relatives or people of influence in Obongi district.

He however expressed disappointment over the mounting bribery allegations against police officers handling the cases of defilement saying it will be handled administratively based on the evidences they can land on.

“We have received complaints against some of our officers in Obongi from the girls’ parents, this is unfortunate and we shall not let it go just like that because it is our constitutional mandate to ensure justice is delivered and these teenagers are our future leaders. There should be no compromise about handling capital offense,” Dragudu emphasized.

About West Nile

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