MONROVIA – Nat Bayjay, Minister Counselor for Press and Public Affairs at the Liberia Embassy in Abuja, the Federal Republic of Nigeria, has claimed that his 7-year-old daughter was sexually abused by two children of one of the staffs working at the embassy.
“Straight to the point, one of my daughters, aged just 7 at the time, was unfortunately sexually abused over a period of seven months by not one but two different perpetrators,” Bayjay claimed.
“These rapists not once, not twice but multiple times over a period of seven months abused my daughter right on the premises of the Liberian Embassy in Abuja.”
Bayjay during a press conference this week, however, declined to disclose the names of the alleged perpetrators and the names of their parents, stressing that the litigation process was ongoing currently in Liberia.
But a FrontPage Africa investigation has established both Alieu Sackor and Amblard Massaquoi as alleged perpetrators. They are said to be 15 and 16 years respectively.
Bayjay alleged that the boys who were under the guidance of a colleague diplomat, Mr. Daniel Rogers, who also is assigned at the Abuja Mission, has up to date shown no remorse for the alleged acts carried out by his wards against the victim.
“These two perpetrators themselves were under the guidance of a colleague diplomat also assigned at the Abuja Mission who himself up to today’s date shows no remorse for the acts carried out by his wards against my baby,” he said.
He claimed that for seven months those boys have been allegedly abusing his daughter sexually and currently the health of the child is declining while he and his family are struggling to carter to the health of his child.
He added the uncle to the perpetrators, Rogers and the Liberia Ambassador to Nigeria Dr. Al-Hassan Conteh including officials of government in Liberia are allegedly refusing to look after his illed child.
Bayjay noted that he has applied all diplomatic means to get the attention of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Dee Maxwell Keymayan, the Ministry of Information and the office of the President so that his daughter can seek a proper medication attention as the case being looked at in court but to no avail.
“I’m constrained to use this public space because all efforts that I have applied diplomatically to get the attention of relevant authorities here to particularly care for the welfare of my sexually abused baby have only produced no response, making closure on such a traumatizing incident to be yet far off and continue to haunt my family,” he said.
He is, however, calling on President George Weah to intervene and carter to the welfare of his child as the health of the kid is not encouraging.
“I have come to use this medium to appeal to His Excellency President George Manneh Weah to personally intervene in that very distressful situation that happened to my family while on national duty in Abuja, the Federal Republic of Nigeria,”
He further said: “For the past 8 months, I have been asking our Liberian Government to take full responsibility of catering to the child’s wellbeing while pursuing justice; something that has been completely ignored right from when such an alarming matter finally came to our attention since April 17, 2021.
He disclosed that the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Information, and Justice have taken steps to forward the matter to court following his insistence, it is not enough in helping to cater to the welfare of our abused child,” Bayjay noted.
“While I’m in Monrovia for the past two months to pursue the justice aspect to this matter, I keep getting calls from my family over our young daughter’s declining health back in Abuja, costing her to miss out on school several days.
As we are aware of the long process of litigation, why can’t cater to the welfare of this innocent child solely on humanitarian grounds? Why if this litigation lingers for a year, we the family remains the only one to be going through the financial stress of her health which is already in a poor state?” he asked in frustration.
He described as disappointing that eight months down the line there has been absolutely no concerns over his baby daughter’s health which continues to deteriorate.
“Only my family continues to single-handedly pay for her routine and regular medical checkups and her post-traumatic and other forms of psychosocial counseling section as should be done for such an innocent traumatized child, he said.
Bayjay said the situation compelled him to move his family out of the government assigned apartment based on Ambassador Al-Hassan Conteh’s unnecessary biases over his “intervention” that convinced him (Bayjay), that his family was not safe any longer under the leadership of the Ambassador.
“And when I only asked him to show leadership in such a grave case which he had deceptively described as a ‘red line crossed’, the Ambassador’s ego would not any common sense in the sense of sympathy for the victim to prevail but would only ensure that both our personal and professional relationships are erased on account on me, the father of a young victim taking stance against his biased approach that only protected the perpetrators rather than the victim,” said Bayjay.
One of the alleged perpetrators father, Alieu Sackor Sr, told FrontPageAfrica that he could not speak to the matter because the case was in court but would later revealed that his son was back from Nigeria. He, however, referred FPA to his lawyer Cllr. Abel Massallay for further inquiries.
Liberia’s Ambassador to Nigeria, Al Hassan Conteh reacting to the alligations when contacted by FrontPageAfrica said: “Right now, my response is: No comment, the matter was fully investigated and referred to the relevant agencies in Liberia and subsequently refer to the Ministry of Justice, and is to be forward to the court and under our law when a case is in the court it is sub-Judicial and cannot be brought in public space. So my response is no comment to that,”
However, a local women advocacy group in Liberia, Liberia Women Forum (LWF) has condemned the act of rape against such kid and called on the Government of Liberia to immediately intervene in the matter.
The Acting President of the LWF, Madam Kadi Porte, has frowned on all forms of sexual abuse against women and children and all for forms gender base violence as Liberia joins the world over to celebrate the 16 Days of activism of violence against women and children.
She called on the parents of the child, Mr and Mrs Bayjay to remain professional and continue with the legal process, saying, “She trust the ability of the president that he will give ears to the cry of those poor parents crying on his name for intervention,” Kadi said further.
As Bayjay struggles to get the president’s attention to his child’s health, the office of the President has clarified that it has not received any communication from Bayjay neither have they heard what is unfolding at the diplomatic mission in Nigeria.
Presidential Press Secretary Smith Toby said the Liberian leader has not heard about it, and if he does, the necessary intervention will be made.