A 27-year-old trader, Lucky Bassey, has been arrested by the police for allegedly raping his neighbour’s daughter, Ruth (pseudonym) in the Bariga area of Lagos State. Both the suspect and the victim live in the same house on Akilo Street where the incident happened.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the 12-year-old victim was using the toilet penultimate Monday, when the suspect forced the door open and subsequently raped her.
Their correspondent was told that the victim’s mother observed that she could not walk properly after she left the toilet. She interrogated Ruth, who told her mother that Bassey had raped her. The matter was reported at the Bariga Police Division and the suspect was subsequently arrested.
Ruth, a primary six pupil, told the police that Bassey had sex with her while standing. She said she could not tell how long the sexual assault lasted, but in the end, the suspect threatened to deal with her if she told anyone. She said:
“I was in the toilet on Monday, May 25, around 8pm, when I heard a knock on the door. I told the person at the other side that I was using the toilet. But brother Bassey forced the door open and closed my mouth to stop me from shouting.
We were both standing when he raped me. He said I should not tell my mother about it or he would deal with me.”
The mother told PUNCH Metro that she observed that after she left the toilet she could not walk properly. She said it aroused her curiosity and she interrogated her daughter for information.
“I called her and asked what happened to her. She told me that Bassey raped her.”
She said she reported the matter at the police station, leading to the arrest of the suspect. After the rape, Ruth bled for a week. She was reportedly rushed to a general hospital in the state where she was treated before the bleeding stopped.
The result of some tests conducted on her, which was sighted, stated that there was a forceful penetration into her private parts “which affected her femalecore and labia majora.”
The victim’s mother said Bassey’s family members had been asking her to forgive the suspect.
“We are both from the same village in Calabar, Akwa Ibom State. We also live in the same compound in Lagos. His people have been asking us to forgive him. Even our landlady has also begged me. But I have told them it was no longer within my power and that the government has taken over the case. I don’t know why it will be my daughter of all people that he will do this to when there are many prostitutes out there that he can have sex with.”
However, the suspect denied raping the victim. He said:
“I don’t know what she is talking about because on that day, I did not enter the toilet as she claimed and I did not rape her.”
The Police Public Relations Officers, Kenneth Nwosu, when contacted, confirmed the incident.
He said, “We arrested the suspect and he has been remanded in the Ikoyi Prison after being charged to court.”
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