Suspect accused of raping six girls

An Ikeja High Court in Lagos State heard yesterday how a businessman, Nwanne Nwaora, allegedly raped six girls in a neighbourhood.

The mother of the latest victim, simply identified as Ijeoma, alleged that Nwaora, 40, impregnated her 12-year-old daughter.

She narrated how the suspect, who she said was her neighbour, raped her daughter.

Nwaora was alleged to have committed the offence on November 10, 2015 at 55, Aromire Street, near Muri Busari, Ogba, Lagos.

Led in evidence by the state prosecuting counsel, Mr. Y. G. Oshoala, before Justice Josephine Oyefeso, Ijeoma, 33, alleged that her daughter was the sixth  girl Nwaora had raped in their neighbourhood.

Ijeoma, a trader, described Nwaora as a serial rapist, who loved raping children.

She said: “Sometime in 2015, precisely on a Tuesday, I discovered a strange change in my daughter’s body. So I decided to watch her closely and monitor her movement.

“Later, a neighbour, Mr. Nwanne Nwaora, approached me and told me to look after my daughter properly because he had observed that she roamed about. He advised me not to ask my daughter what happened to her or what the problem was. But this statement aroused my suspicion.

“I insisted that I would ask her since I am her mother. I took my daughter into our room later that evening and asked her what was wrong with her.

“She told me that Uncle Nwanne (the defendant) raped her when I went to the market.

“I immediately took her to Ikeja General Hospital for medical check-up and after series of tests, it was confirmed that my daughter was pregnant. An HIV test was conducted on her.

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“The hospital referred us to Isokoko Police station to lodge a complaint. We went to the police station, wrote a statement and the police came to my house the next day and arrested him in his shop.”

Ijeoma said Nwaora, however, denied raping her daughter at the police station.

Nwaora, she said, asked to be bailed by some of his friends.

“The District Police Officer (DPO) later told me that it was when his friends came for his bail that he confessed that he raped my daughter. The DPO got so angry with him that he ordered them to lock him up inside the cell,” she alleged.

The mother of the minor further told the court that the defendant’s brother came the next day and begged her to forgive him, adding that he also told her that he had warned Nwaora several times to stop raping or having sex with underage children, to no avail.