16-year-old impregnated by vice principal cries out to the government

A 16-year-old student of Government Secondary School, Tunga, Minna, Niger state, Faith Galadima who was impregnated by her Vice Principal Mohammed Mohammed, has given birth a baby boy.

Galadima while speaking to newsmen in Minna on Tuesday lamented the way she was treated during the pregnancy saying:


“I did not receive any assistance from the V.P despite the agreement between him and the child rights agency.
I am not happy that I am now a mother at this tender age, I will not allow the incident to shatter my dream of becoming a nurse. I still want to further my studies because I want to be a be a nurse in the future.”

She solicited for the support of government and NGOs for her to take care of the baby and continue her education. The father of the girl, Mr Haruna Galadina, also confirmed that her daughter was abandoned during the period of her pregnancy and asked “the authorities to come into the matter”. .

The V.P, Mohammed Mohammed, after his arrest, was arraigned before a Minna magistrate court on April 4, 2017, on a two-count charge of unlawful sexual intercourse with a child, and impregnating a female student.

The accused was remanded in prison custody for three months after he pleaded not guilty to the charge and applied for bail. Magistrate Fatima Auna, however, granted him N1 million bail.

In her reaction, Mrs Maryam Kolo, DG of the Niger state Child Rights Protection Agency, said that part of the agency’s demands to the state Ministry of Education was that some part of the accused salary is given to the victim on monthly basis to cater for her needs.
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Kolo said the agency would put an application to the court for a DNA test to be conducted on the baby so as to assist police investigation and the court.

She gave assurance that the agency would get justice for the victim and see that she returned to school. Investigation, however, revealed that the accused had been secretly transferred from the school to an unknown school while the case against him was still pending in the court.