25-yr-old man in the dock for raping 7-yr-old girl
A 25-year-old trader in Lagos State has been arraigned in a court for allegedly abducting and raping a seven-year-old girl.
Punch reports that Alu, a trader at a market on 23 Road in FESTAC, had reportedly abducted the girl identified as Victoria, after her parents sent her out of the house to search for the lost card after she was sent on the errand.
The suspect who saw the girl roaming along Adeola Street in Amuwo Odofin area, took her to a shop in the market where he forcefully had carnal knowledge of her throughout the night.
His bubble was burst the following morning when he was spotted leaving the shop at about 5am, with the child strapped to his back.
Those who saw him, knowing he had no child of his own, became suspicious and queried him on how he came about the girl but when he could not give a reasonable explanation, he was apprehended, poured ashes on him and alerted the police at the FESTAC division, who arrested him.
At the station, the defiled girl was said to have told the police how Alu had abducted her, took her to the shop and raped her all night. She was subsequently taken to the Mirabel Centre at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, where a test carried out on her revealed that she had been raped.
The suspect allegedly told the police that he had met the girl crying on Adeola Street and asked her what was wrong.
“She said her parents sent her to buy a recharge card, but it got missing and as a result, she was chased out.
I told her to follow me to a place and promised to take her home afterwards. She agreed and that was how I took her to the shop. We only slept together; I didn’t touch her.”
Alu was thereafter dragged before the court presided over by Magistrate A.O. Adegbite, on one count of rape, an offence the police prosecutor, Francisca Job, said contravened Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
When the charge was read to him, Alu pleaded not guilty and elected summary trial.
Adegbite then admitted him to bail in the sum of N100,000 with two sureties in like sum, while the case was adjourned till August 11, 2016, for mention.
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