Faith
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.
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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
