Zwedru, Grand Gedeh County – The 13-year-old girl held her three-month-old daughter on her lap, sitting outside a mud house in Billabo, a rural town on a dirt road in Grand Gedeh County, represented by Morias Waylee, (Unity Party –District #2, Grand Gedeh).
Report by Bettie K. Johnson Mbayo, [email protected]
“My Parents Told Me Not to Talk About What Happened’’ – Thirteen-year-old rape victim
The victim’s name is being withheld to protect her privacy and due to the nature of the case.
Billabo is a 16-hour motorbike ride from Zwedru, eight hours to go and eight hours to return.
A FrontpageAfrica reporter travelled on dirt roads, through fields surrounded by mud houses to find the girl who family sources said was allegedly raped by her uncle, Representative Waylee.
The teen-age girl lived with Waylee at his home in Monrovia in Fendell where Waylee allegedly had sex with her.
The baby was delivered by C-section at the Martha Tubman Hospital in Grand Gedeh Zwedru City
After the operation, the teen–ager began defecating through her vagina, a symptom of fistula, the ‘’pepee pupu’’ sickness that is common among young victims of rape and women who go through delivery without adequate medical care.
‘’My father and my mother told me not to talk to anyone about what happened,’’ the teen-ager said last week, holding her chin in her hands.
Waylee denied the allegation, but when Frontpage first reported the story in early May, a family source was quoted as saying that Waylee took responsibility for the child and has been supporting the teen-ager and her family.
‘The Little Girl is Sick
“As we speak, the little girl is sick,’’ the source told FPA. ‘’He is trying to convince the family that he will take care of the girl. He is an uncle to the girl. The girl’s father, who is his brother, is in tears.’’
FrontpageAfrica reporter found a frightened teen-ager who refused to provide details of what happened to her.
A woman, who identified herself as Cecilia, said she had been staying at the house with the teen-age girl and her baby.
While trying to interview the girl, our reporter was forced to leave after she was alerted that the girl’s mother was coming that led our reporter to hide in the bush for three hours and returned to the town another day at night hours.
When our reporter returned, the girl was not at home. Cecilia said the girl’s mother took her to the Sande Bush after learning that she had reported the rape to strangers.
The girl’s mother runs the Sande Bush School in Billabo.
The teen-ager’s mom is a “very big Zoe’’ in town, Cecilia said.
“Her mother came and people told her that she had spoken with a stranger, so she decided to take her to the Sande Bush,’’ Cecilia said.
Cecilia and other residents said, people were ordered not to talk to anyone about the situation. The town had a meeting warning people not to talk about the ‘’honourable act.’’
‘’But it’s true that the girl used to live with him and she got pregnant and gave birth to the baby girl,’’ she said.
Samuel Wilson, a close relative of the girl’s mother, said he has known the victim since she was born. After the girl delivered, she and her baby lived with him for a short while.
“When they came, I saw her with the baby and I asked, ‘who is the father,’ but they didn’t answer. ‘’
Officials at the Ministry of Gender, LNP and the Ministry of Justice said they have not received an official complaint about the incident.
The Liberia National Police spokesperson Sam Collins said the Police has encourage people with information to come forward for investigation.
“We have encourage the family and anyone with information to come forward, but for now we have no complaint from anyone.”
‘Girls’ Parents Responsible
The Gender Ministry has started its investigation according to Gender Based Violence Coordinator Deddeh Kwekwe via phone.
Wilson, the relative, said he can’t intervene because it is the responsibility of the girl’s parents to report the situation.
“She’s not my daughter, so if her father wants to leave it, that’s his daughter,’’ he said.”
“If it were his daughter, Wilson said, he won’t be protecting the person who raped her and got her pregnant.
‘’No family member have told me about the father of the baby girl,’’ he said. The government, he said, should be supported in the investigation, ‘’if there is a case against the honorable.
‘’We can’t challenge the government, if they have a case against Waylee,’’ Wilson said.
Solomon Weah, of the Grand Gedeh Police Department, said the department has not received any report regarding the rape of a 13-year-old girl who got pregnant by Waylee.
Police ‘Need Order’ From Central to Act
“We can’t be the one picking up the case as long as the family doesn’t come forward to report,’’ he said.
‘’We expect the family to come because they might say, ‘’we manufactured our story and we want to exploit from the family. We can investigate, but we need an order from the central office.’’
Though Waylee denied the allegations, he filed a complaint against child advocate Abraham Keita which the contempt charge was dismissed by the Stipendiary Magistrate Kennedy Peabody of the Monrovia City Court at the Temple of Justice on Tuesday, May 30, 2017.
Keita still has to answer to another charge of criminal coercion pending against him before the Monrovia City Court despite the dismissal of the contempt charge.
The Monrovia City Court on May 23, 2017 charged Keita with criminal coercion after Waylee sued him on grounds of the child rights advocate organizing a protest at the Capitol, where he asked the lawmaker’s colleagues to have him investigated over report that he has allegedly raped a 13-year old girl.