A 30-year-old motorcyclist popularly known as Okada is in currently cooling off in police net after he was alleged to have raped a two-year-old baby identified by a pseudonym, Pat in Ofor street of the Somolu area of Lagos State.
Garuba Abdulraman, who hails from Niger State, reportedly kicked the victim’s pregnant aunty, Alimat Muazu, when she demanded to know the whereabouts of the toddler on the fateful day of Saturday, February 21, 2015.
One of the victim’s family members who remains anonymous, said the baby was placed on medication after a medical test revealed that her hymen had been broken.
He said, “It happened on Saturday, February 21, 2015 around 11.30am.
“Pat’s mother lives in Gbagada, while her sister, Muazu, stays at Somolu. She decided to visit Muazu that day.
“It was during the visit that the girl suddenly went missing and everybody started looking for her.
“But somebody said he sighted Abdulraman, a motorcyclist, taking her away. So, some women trailed the child to an uncompleted building where he lives. When they got there, they met him and he didn’t tell them where the child was.”
The development, it was learnt led to an exchange of words between the women and the suspect, and in the ensuing scuffle, the suspect kicked pregnant Muazu in the stomach, an threatened to hack the women with a cutlass if they dared get close to him, as reported by Punch
It was further gathred that the suspect challenged the family to file a report to the police of the incident.
Police officials from the Somolu division later arrived the scene after they got the information.
A spokesperson for the police said, “When we got there, we found the girl in one of the rooms, in a big bowl of water.
“She could barely move and when she tried, she fell down. She began to cry. We didn’t suspect anything until we saw that her pants and clothes had been washed and hung on the line to dry. The suspect was also not putting on any clothes.”
The suspect was on Tuesday, February 24, 2015 arraigned before an Ebute Meta Chief Magistrate’s Court on four counts of rape and assault.
Abdulraman who denied raping the toddler and admitted threatening to hack the women with a cutlass said he was forced to do so after they stoned him.
He said, “I don’t know these people from anywhere. I had gone to their compound when someone said he needed to buy plywoods.
“Pat came near my okada and started playing with it, and those people said I should help them carry her, which I did.
“After they finished buying the plywoods, they said they could still not carry her, because they had a lot of load to carry. They asked me to help them.
“It was while carrying her that she soiled her clothes and I decided to wash it for her. I never had sex with her.”
The defendant’s defence counsel, F.S. Osordi, in his application for bail, asked the court to overlook his client’s guilty plea to charges of assault and threat to injure with cutlass.
Osordi claimed the defendant told him a different story before the court proceeding on the case.
Meanwhile, the Chief Magistrate, O. I. Adelaja, admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N300,000 with two sureties in like sum.
The sureties must provide proofs of employment, tax payment, and their addresses for verification by the court.
The case was adjourned for further mention until Wednesday, April 8, 2015.
