A 10-year old girl (name withheld) who lives at Agbado Ijaiye area of Lagos, southwest Nigeria, has alleged that her father’s best friend, Sunday Nwankwo, raped her five times in two years.
Nwankwo was arraigned at the Magistrate’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 girl’s mother, “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 father’s friend that slept with
her. She said by the time I gave birth to my second son, that was the
third time her father’s friend had slept with her. I gave birth to my
second son two years ago, when she was eight years old.”
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 Nwankwo’s compound, which gave the man the opportunity to
carry out the alleged act.
She said: “my husband has been feeding Nwankwo for years. People
even thought my husband was his younger brother because of their
closeness.”
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.
