By Afeez Hanafi
A 25-year-old woman, Nnena Okoro, has been arrested by the
police after she reportedly lured a 14-year-old girl, Faith (pseudonym) to a
hotel, where a man raped her.
Okoro lives in Sumoratu Estate, off Ojo Road, Lagos State,
where the victim resides. She was said to have been Faith’s confidant.
PUNCH Metro gathered that on the noon of May 16, when the girl’s aunt,
with whom she lives, was not around, Okoro approached her and requested that
she accompanied her to the Barracks area to buy mangoes.
It was learnt that Okoro rejected the mangoes available in
the area and went to Wowo, a nearby street, where the hotel was located.
Our correspondent was told that Okoro, who had allegedly
collected an undisclosed amount from the fleeing rapist, lured Faith into a
room in the hotel and shut the door.
Faith said her mouth was covered, as Nnena aided the man to
rape her.
She said, “Aunty Nnena (Okoro) said I should follow her to
buy mangoes in Barracks Lane. She did not like the mangoes they had there and
she said we should go to Ojo Road. We went to a hotel and met a man, who she
called her friend. Aunty Nnena told me to enter a room. Suddenly, both of them
dragged me to the bed. Nnena held my hand and covered my mouth with a cloth.
The man pulled off my trousers and raped me. He left the hotel immediately he
finished doing it and said he had paid Aunty Nnena.”
“I went outside crying. It was one woman around the area
that helped to clean the blood coming out from my private parts when she saw
me. She later took me to the Layeni Police Station.”
In her statement to the police, Okoro, who hails from Abia
State, confessed to taking the girl to the hotel. She denied coercing the
victim into the act and claimed that she had never met the man prior to the
incident.
She said, “Faith is my friend. On the fateful day, we both
went to buy mangoes on Ojo Road. On getting to a hotel at Tolu, one man called her.
They both discussed and the man paid N500 to the hotel attendant and they
entered the room. I later left them inside the room to ease myself. It was when
I came back that she told me that she was raped. I did not know that she was a
virgin. We have never discussed anything like that before. Her pants were
stained with blood. I have never seen the man before that day, but I can
recognise him if I see him again.”
PUNCH Metro learnt that Okoro had been arraigned before an Apapa
Magistrate’s Court on two counts bordering on the crime, while the police said
they had launched a manhunt for the suspect.
The charges read, “That you, Nnena Okoro, and one other
male, now at large, on May 16, 2015, at about 3.20pm, at Graziela Hotel on Wowo
Street, Tolu, Ajegunle, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did conspire to
commit felony to wit; defilement, and thereby committed an offence punishable
under Section 409 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2011.
“That you, Nnena Okoro, on the same date, time and place in
the aforementioned magisterial district, did hold the hands of 14-year-old
Faith to the bed and allowed one other man at large to have unlawful carnal
knowledge of her, and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 137
of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2011.”
The accused pleaded not guilty.
A police prosecutor, ASP Olusoji Ojaokomo, said a medical
test conducted on the girl revealed that her hymen had been ruptured.
The defendant’s counsel pleaded with the court to grant bail
to his client.
The presiding m agistrate, Mr. P.A. Adekomaya,
admitted her to bail in the sum of N100,000. He adjourned the case till June
22, 2015.
Culled from The Punch
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