A cloth dealer, Cyprian Edundu, 38, has been arrested by the
police for allegedly raping a nine -year-old girl.
PUNCH Metro learnt that Edundu, who
is allegedly dating the victim’s mother, lives in the Ojo area of Lagos, where
her lover resides.
Our correspondent learnt that the indigene of Imo State had
lured the girl to his room sometime in October 2014 and allegedly raped her.
It was gathered that Edundu, after the act, warned the girl
not to inform anybody.
The girl, however, reportedly told her mother when Edundu
tricked him into his room and attempted to rape her the second time.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the suspect
was apprehended after the minor’s mother, identified simply as Amaka, reported
the incident at the Ojo Police Station.
Edundu, in a statement he made to the police, denied the
allegation, claiming that he only sent the girl on an errand. He said there was
a relationship between him and Amaka, adding that the woman used to send the
girl to him whenever she needed money.
He said, “I merely sent her (the victim) on an errand. I
didn’t rape her. Amaka, her husband and I are very close. One day she (Amaka)
came to my room half-naked, asking for money. She seduced me one morning when
she needed N5,000. That was the first time we had sex. She sent her daughter to
me whenever she needed something.”
Amaka, however, refuted having extramarital affair with the
suspect, but she admitted that she usually borrowed money from him.
She said, “I never went out with him (Edundu). Yes, I
collected N5,000 from him, but I paid him back. The first money I got from him
was N1,000. He is just a neighbour to me and nothing else.”
Edundu was brought before an Apapa Magistrate’s Court on one
count of rape.
The charge read, “That you, Cyprian Edundun, sometime in
October 2014, at about 10am on Semach Street, Agric, Ojo, in the Lagos
Magisterial District, did defile a nine-year-old girl without her consent and
thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 137 of the Criminal Law
of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2011.”
A police prosecutor, Inspector Olusoji Ojaokomo, told the
court that a medical test conducted on the girl at a general hospital in Lagos
revealed that her “hymen had been ruptured.”
The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The presiding magistrate, Mr. P.A. Adekomaya, admitted him
to bail in the sum of N100,000 with one surety in like sum.
The case was adjourned till June 10, 2015 for mention.
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