Metro

Parent causes 7-yr-old to be raped over recharge card

Published

8 years ago

July 28, 2016

Ikechukwu Alu, a trader has been arrested by men of the Nigerian police force after he allegedly defiled a seven-year-old minor identified as Victoria.

Reports say the scenario played out at FESTAC Town/Amuwo Odofin area in Lagos after Victoria was scolded by her guardians for misplacing a voucher (recharge card) she was asked to purchase.

According to reports Ikechukwu accosted and abducted Victoria on Adeola Street in Amuwo Odofin when she was sent away from home to go find the misplaced voucher.

Ikechukwu reportedly took her to a shop in a nearby market where he forced Victoria to pass the night with him and allegedly raped her.

Eyebrows were raised the next morning when Ikechukwu stepped out of the shop with Victoria strapped to his back and when he was questioned by residents who knew he didn’t have a child, the trader couldn’t provide an answer prompting residents to alert the police.

When questioned, Victoria confessed to the police that the suspect “put his thing (manhood) in my bum-bum” and was subsequently taken to the Mirabel Centre at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja for tests where it was confirmed that she was actually raped.

Ikechukwu when recounting his own side of the story, said he met Victoria crying and distressed on Adeola Street.

“She said her parent 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,” he said.

Ikechukwu was later paraded at an Apapa Magistrate’s Court on one count of rape and before reading his charge, police prosecutor, Francisca Job told the hearing presided over by Magistrate A.O. Adegbite, that the suspects offence contravened Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

Job also read Ikechukwu’s charge as thus; “That you, Ikechukwu Alu, on May 24, 2016, at about5am at 23 Road, FESTAC Town, Lagos, in the Apapa Magisterial District, did unlawfully defile a seven-year-old girl, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 138 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011.”

Adegbite, the magistrate, admitted Ikechukwu (who pleaded not guilty to the charge) to bail in the sum of N100,000 with two sureties in like sum, adding that the sureties’ residential addresses and evidence of tax payments made to Lagos State must be verified by the prosecution while also adjourning the case till August 11, 2016.

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