Police in Lagos have arrested a 78-year-old man, Alhaji Dauda Adebowale, for allegedly raping an 11-year-old girl, Remilekun (not her real name).
The incident was said to have happened in Pen Cinema, in the Agege area of the state.
It was learnt that some time in June 2015, Remilekun was passing by a shop where the old man lived alone when he called to send her on an errand.
When she returned, he was said to have dragged her into the shop and raped her, threatening to kill her if she told the act to anyone.
He was said to be living alone in the shop. It was gathered that Adebowale raped her on several occasions after the first time because he had threatened her with death if she told any one.
However, trouble started for the suspect on Sunday, August 2, when Remilekun, who was reportedly sleeping beside her mother in the afternoon of the fateful day, suddenly woke up, shouting ‘penis, penis’ to the bewilerment of the mother.
The woman, who did not want her name in print, said haggard-looking Remilekun opened up to her after she pestered her.
She said:
“On that Sunday, I was ill and was sleeping. She also slept beside me. She suddenly cried out, shouting, ‘penis, penis, penis’. I was shocked. When I asked her what happened, she said it was a man on our street that had been having sex with her.
“I followed her to the man’s house. Some boys confronted him and he confessed to them. I then reported him at the Area G Police Command in Ogba and he was arrested. I took my daughter to a hospital for tests because she has become lean. The medical result showed that her vagina had been tampered with and I have given it to the police.”
The victim, a primary 2 pupil, who spoke in Yoruba, said she had lost count of the number of times the old man had raped her but that she had gotten fed up and called his bluff.
She said:
“I was passing by a shop on our street one Saturday afternoon when he called me. He was sitting outside the shop and told me to help him bring a document inside the shop. I was about to leave after I gave him the document when he dragged me inside and locked the door.
“He covered my mouth and raped me. He threatened to kill me if I told anybody. The following day, he called me again and repeated the same thing. I can’t remember how many times he had sex with me. Whenever I told him I would tell my mother, he would say I was playing with my life.
“When I could no longer bear it, I opened up to a woman in our area and she promised that she would make sure the man was evicted from the shop.
“It was few days after that my mother said she heard me shout ‘penis’ while I was asleep.”
Remilekun’s sister, Tokunbo (not her real name) said she had narrowly escaped being trapped by the suspect not knowing that her younger sister had fallen victim.
She said:
“He called me two weeks ago and told me that he liked me. He promised to take care of me if I cooperated.
“I said I did not understand and managed to run away. I told my mother when I got home and she warned me to stay off his reach.”
The suspect was arraigned before an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court on three counts bordering on rape.
The charges read in part, “That you, Alhaji Dauda Adebowale, 78, sometime in 2015, at a shop in Pen Cinema, Agege, Lagos, in the Ikeja Magisterial District, did have sexual intercourse with one 11-year-old girl.
“That you, within the same period and place in the aforementioned magisterial district, did sexually assault one 11-year-old girl.”
The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges which, according to the police, contravene sections 137, 166 and 257 of the Criminal Law II, Vol. 44 of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011.
The presiding magistrate, Mr. T. Elias, granted the defendant bail in the sum of N1m with two sureties each in like sum.
The matter was adjourned till September 2, 2015, Elias ordered that the man be kept in prison custody pending the time he would be able to perfect his bail.
