A trader at a market on 23 Road, FESTAC Town, Lagos,
Ikechukwu Alu, has been arrested by the police for the
alleged abduction and rape of a seven-year-old girl,
Victoria.
It was learnt that the victim had been sent on an errand
to buy a voucher
(recharge card), but she misplaced it while returning
home.
On getting home, she was reportedly chased out to look
for the recharge card during which the 25-year-old
suspect abducted her on Adeola Street in Amuwo
Odofin, where she lives, and took her to a shop in a
nearby market.
Alu reportedly made the girl to pass the night in the
shop and allegedly raped her.
PUNCH Metro learnt that as he left the shop around 5am
the following day, some residents around the area saw
him, with Victoria strapped to his back.
The residents, who are aware Alu does not have a child,
reportedly queried him on how he came about the girl.
When he could not give a genuine explanation, they
were said to have poured ashes on him and alerted the
police at the FESTAC division, who picked him up.
Our correspondent learnt that Victoria told 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.
A test carried out on her at the centre reportedly
confirmed that she was raped.
The suspect reportedly told the police that he had met
the girl crying on Adeola Street and asked her what was
wrong.
“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.
Alu was brought before an Apapa Magistrate’s Court on
one count of rape by a police prosecutor, Francisca Job.
Job told the court, presided over by Magistrate A.O.
Adegbite, that the offence contravened Section 137 of
the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
The charge read, “That you, Ikechukwu Alu, on May 24,
2016, at about 5am 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.”
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge and
elected summary trial.
The magistrate, Adegbite, admitted him 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.
The case was adjourned till August 11, 2016.
