A magistrate’s court at Iyaganku, Ibadan, Oyo State
has ordered seven accused persons arraigned
before it for conspiracy and defilement to be
remanded in Agodi prison custody till January 27.
The accused’s names were listed as Emmanuel
Abiola (64) a.k.a. Old Soldier, Mohammed Sanni
(35), Kabiru Mohammed (25), Sakiru Sokoto (20),
Eze Ndubuisi (26), Mohammed Sefiu (21) and
Mohammed Bashir (20).
In a suit with number MI/1516C/2013, the accused
persons were said to have “conspired together to
commit felony to wit defilement, contrary to and
punishable under section 516 of the criminal code
cap 38 vol. 2 laws of Oyo State of Nigeria 2000.”
The second count charge read that the accused “did
have unlawful carnal knowledge of one (names
withheld) (13) and thereby committed an offence
contrary to and punishable under section 218 of the
criminal code cap 38 vol. 2 laws of Oyo State of
Nigeria 2000.”
After the charges were read and the accused
confirmed that they understood the charges, the
Magistrate sitting at Court 4, Mrs. Kehinde
Durosaro-Tijani ordered their remand at Agodi
prisons and adjourned the case till January 27. When probed, the 13year-old girl confessed that some men had
been having sex with her. She revealed that five of
them who were Hausa used to give her N20 each.
Same went for Old Soldier and Ndubuisi.
The guardian, who spoke with Crime Reports said
that when she was first informed that her niece had
sex with several men when she was sent to fetch
water, she did not take it serious, until her teacher
brought her home.
One of the suspects, Ndubuisi however denied
involvement, saying that he only heard that Old
Soldier used to have sex with the girl, after which he
would give her N20. “I don’t know why my name
was mentioned, though I wrote in my statement that
I had sex with her once ,with the belief that I would
be released if I said so,” Ndubuisi said.
Pa Abiola a.k.a. Old Soldier also denied having sex
with the teenager, saying that she was his
granddaughter’s age. When asked why the girl
pointed at him among all the men in the area, in
addition to what Ndubuisi said transpired some days
before his arrest, the man said he could not
understand.
Others also denied the girl’s claim, saying that she
was just mentioning the names of any man she saw
on the day the police came to the area.