Police arrest Lagos trader who raped 12-year-old girl

A 23-year-old trader named Bukola Orogun was detained by the police in the Ebute-Ero Division, Idumota, Lagos Island, and charged in a Lagos Magistrate's Court with having sex with a 12-year-old girl.

According to reports, he committed the crime inside a store in the Abibat Mogaji Plaza, Ebute-Ero Market, Idumota, Lagos Island, Lagos.

The victim's private parts were torn during the incident, according to the police, with blood oozing out.

According to the authorities, the event was made public after the victim's parents saw blood stains on their daughter's clothes and asked her about them.

According to the young girl's mother, a man had intercourse with her without her will inside a store at the Mogaji Plaza, Ebute-Ero Market, Idumota, Lagos.

According to the police, the mother brought her daughter and the stained clothing to the Ebute-Ero Police Division where she informed the DPO in charge of the division, CSP Ademola Oyunyamoju, about the incident. Oyunyamoju immediately sent his men to the market to apprehend the shady trader.

Narrating the incident to the police, the victim who claimed to be a virgin at the time and a student stated: “I was sent on that fateful day by my aunt to help her drop load at the Habibat Mogaji Plaza, Ebute-Ero market at about 6.30 pm and after I dropped the load and on my way out, someone forcefully dragged me from behind and rushed me inside a shop at the Plaza and immediately covered my face and mouth with cloth and forcefully had sex with me, and in the process, blood started gushing out from my private parts profusely.

“When the man saw that blood was gushing out from my private part, he warned me not to tell anyone and that if I told anyone or even my parents, he would kill me.

“I tried to hide the blood that was still running out from my private parts from my mother because I have not done such a thing in my life before and the fear of being killed by the man, but it was not possible as my mother still noticed the blood stains.”

The defendant, a resident of Ondo State, was accused of defilment in one count before Tinubu Magistrate's Court in Lagos Island.

When the defendant was asked by her aunt to drop off a load at the Habibat Mogaji Plaza, Ebute-Ero Market, Koti Aodohemba, the police prosecuting attorney, testified in court that the defendant forcedly had sex with the minor inside a shop at the plaza.

He claimed that section 137 of the Lagos State Criminal Law from 2015 provided for the punishment of the offense the defendant committed.

The defendant, however, entered a not-guilty plea to the charge, and Magistrate A.T. Omoyele ordered that the defendant be held at the Ikoyi Correctional Facility until the Department of Public Prosecution's advice on the case file is released. The case was then postponed.

Source