A 16-year-old boy, Mohammed, has been remanded in the custody of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Ado Ekiti, over the alleged rape of a seven-year-old girl.
Magistrate, Kehinde Awosika of the Ekiti State Chief Magistrate’s Court, Ado Ekiti District, ordered the remand of the suspect on Wednesday.
The charge sheet revealed that, “The defendant was reasonably suspected to have committed the offence of rape by having unlawful carnal knowledge of a seven-year-old girl at the Oke-Oniyo area of Iworoko Ekiti sometime in February 2022.”
In the victim’s statement recorded by the police on February 18, 2022, the girl said she was playing with her brother outside their house.
“When my brother left to take his bath, I had slept off before he came back. But when I woke up, I discovered that I was on Lucky’s bed with my pants removed.
“I also discovered that my laps were wet with semen; my private parts were paining me and I started crying. Lucky warned me not to tell anybody, but I later told my mother when she came back. That was the second time that Lucky molested me sexually,” she said.
The prosecutor, Inspector Olubu Apata, had earlier applied for the remand of the defendant in the Juvenile Home at Bamigboye, Ado Ekiti, pending legal advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
Apata said, “The offence runs contrary to and is punishable under Section 31(2) of the Child’s Right Law, Cap.C7, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.”
Magistrate Awosika ordered that the defendant be kept in the custody of the NSCDC.
The judge ordered that hearing notice be issued and served on the Ekiti State Ministry of Women Affairs and the Sexual Assault Referral Centre, Ado-Ekiti, for them to appear in court on the next adjourned date.
He adjourned the case till March 9, 2022, for mention.
