The girl was sent to work as a maid for her aunt and her husband, Joseph Adoyi, last year, according to a Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) Nigeria report.

Adoyi, a security officer at the Benue State University in Makurdi, allegedly repeatedly raped the girl, who became pregnant.

The girl did not speak out because she feared Adoyi would kill her, as he had threatened to do, according to the nonprofit organization’s report published last month.

The child had lived with the couple in the North Bank area of Makurdi, the capital of Benue state, but returned to her parents’ village home after her pregnancy was discovered.

“She joined them at Makurdi when she was 10,” a family source told the FIJ. “She would later be raped consistently by her aunt’s husband until she was impregnated.”

The aunt took her to get a pregnancy test after noticing changes in the girl’s body. When the test revealed the girl was pregnant, she told her aunt she had been raped by Adoyi.

But her aunt reportedly did not believe her husband was responsible, and sent the girl back to her village.

Adoyi was arrested last year but later released without charge, the FIJ reported.

He reportedly confessed to the crime to the girl’s father at one point, but a spokesperson for the Benue State police told the FIJ that he was not aware of the case. Meanwhile, Adoyi is reportedly still working at the university.

Newsweek has contacted the university and Benue State Police for comment.

Nigeria’s Rape Crisis

It comes as human rights groups say Nigerian authorities are failing to tackle the country’s rape crisis.

State governors in Nigeria declared a “state of emergency” on sexual and gender-based violence in the summer of 2020 after rape cases surged after a lockdown to tackle the spread of COVID-19 was imposed.

An Amnesty International report released in November last year said rape persists at crisis levels and most survivors are denied justice due to the failure of police to investigate.

Hundreds of cases go unreported due to corruption, stigma and victim-blaming, according to the report.

“Concrete actions have not been taken to tackle the rape crisis in Nigeria with the seriousness it deserves,” said Osai Ojigho, the director of Amnesty International Nigeria.

“Women and girls continue to be failed by a system that makes it increasingly difficult for survivors to get justice, while allowing perpetrators to get away with gross human rights violations.”