withheld) who lives at Agbado
Ijaiye area of Lagos, southwest
Nigeria, has alleged that her
fatherâ??s best friend, Sunday
Nwankwo, raped her five times
in two years.
Nwankwo was arraigned at the
Magistrateâ??s Court 6, Ikeja and
sent to Kirikiri Prison as he
could not perfect the stringent
bail conditions granted to him by the magistrate.
The accused had pleaded not
guilty to the charge of defiling a
minor and having carnal
knowledge of her forcefully.
He was granted bail on the condition that he provides three
sureties in kike sum of
N100,000 each, three years
evidence of tax payment to the
government and each of the
surety must possess landed property worth N5 million.
The accused was alleged to
have been having sex with the
little girl since she was eight
years old.
Test conducted on the girl at the Orile Agege General Hospital
showed that she was no longer
a virgin.
The alleged illicit act was
exposed when the three-year
old brother of the victim told their mother that somebody
used to lay his sister down
when nobody was around.
Their mother became curious
and questioned the girl, who
later revealed that Nwankwo had been having sex with her,
saying that he had slept with
her five times.
According to the girlâ??s mother,
â??when I first asked her, she
denied it but when I threatened to pour pepper on her, she
opened up and said it was her
fatherâ??s friend that slept with
her. She said by the time I gave
birth to my second son, that
was the third time her fatherâ??s friend had slept with her. I gave
birth to my second son two
years ago, when she was eight
years old.â??
She explained that because the
church the family attended was far, she usually asked her
daughter and the rest to go to
the Four Square Church in
Nwankwoâ??s compound, which
gave the man the opportunity
to carry out the alleged act. She said: â??my husband has
been feeding Nwankwo for
years. People even thought my
husband was his younger
brother because of their
closeness.â?? The 10-year old girl, who is in
Junior Secondary School 1, had
explained to her mother and
the Esther Child Rights
Foundation, which pursued the
matter, that Nwankwo would lay her down on a plank after
putting a foam on top of it and
then have carnal knowledge of
her.
She alleged that the man usually
brought out a knife and threatened to kill her if she
reported the matter to anybody.
The little girl added that
because he lays her on a plank
during the act, that was why
she normally complains of waist pain.
The matter was reported at the
AIT Police Station which led to
the suspectâ??s arrest.
P.M.NEWS gathered that the
police tried to cover up the matter even when the test
conducted on the girl proved
that she was no longer a virgin.
The test result was tendered to
the police but they were not
willing to prosecute the suspect. The culprit was released and re-
arrested after the Esther Child
Rights Foundation, a non-
governmental organisation,
intervened and demanded for
justice. This led the police to arraign the
suspect at the Magistrateâ??s Court
6, Ikeja.
According to the Executive
Director of the foundation, Mrs
Esther Ogwu, she got to know about the matter when the
mother of the raped girl
contacted her, saying that the
police tried to cover up the
matter but that due to her
persistence, the alleged culprit was charged to court.
Ogwu said she interviewed the
raped victim and that she
narrated all that happened to
her and how she was defiled by
her fatherâ??s best friend several times.
The case has been adjourned till
24 May, 2013 for hearing.
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