A 33-year-old security man, Freedom Barryneh, has been arrested by the Lagos State Police Command for allegedly raping his neigbour’s 8-year-old daughter.
The victim, simply identified as Sandra, had reportedly approached the suspect, requesting for N10 to buy biscuits.
After giving Sandra the money, Barryneh, who according to reports was seeing a pornographic film when the minor entered his apartment, persuaded her to stay with him, during which he allegedly asked Sandra to undress but she declined, saying her mother would beat her for doing so.
The suspect, however, allegedly resorted to force and allegedly dragged her into the bed and raped her, The Punch reports.
The victim was said to have opened up to her mother when she began to feel pains in her private parts, despite warning from the suspected rapist not to disclose the act to anybody.
Sandra’s mother, simply identified as Ellen of Akali Street, in the Ajegunle area of the state, reported the incident at the Ajegunle Police Division which led to the suspect’s arrest on March 3.
Meanwhile, the results of medical tests conducted on the girl at the Ajeromi General Hospital, Lagos, confirmed that her “Hymen was broken with bruises around the infroitus.”
The result, which was signed by one Dr. I.A. Dauda, also stated that she suffered from “whitish foul smelling vaginal discharge.”
The victim, narrating her experience said, “I asked Mr. Freedom (Barryneh) to give me N10 to buy biscuit and he did. He took me inside his room. He was watching one video that was showing naked men and women.
“He asked me to remove my clothes, but I said my mother would beat me. He pushed me and put me on his bed. He removed my clothes and put his thing inside my private parts. I was afraid of telling my mother,” Sandra said.
On his part, the suspected rapist who hails from Rivers State, admitted giving the girl N10 to buy biscuit, but denied raping her. He added that the allegation was an attempt to blackmail him.
According to Barryneh, “I work with a private security outfit. She and her friends were playing when she came to me that she needed N10 to buy biscuit. She stood somewhere in my room waiting for the money.
“I was watching a love movie titled, ‘Naked Weapon’. It involved sex. I was surprised when her mother reported at the station that I raped her daughter. I never had sex with the girl. I only gave her the money,” he said.
The suspect was consequently arraigned before an Apapa Magistrate’s Court on two counts of rape.
The police prosecutor, Sergeant Francisca Okere, told the court on Thursday that the offence contravened sections 137 and 259 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
The charges read in part, “That you, Freedom Barryneh, sometime in August 2015, at about 14.30 hours on Akali Street, Ajegunle, Apapa, Lagos, in the Apapa Magisterial District, did penetrate sexually with your penis the privare parts of an eight-year-old girl, thereby committing an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 259 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011.”
The rape suspect pleaded not guilty.
The presiding magistrate, Mrs. O.A. Adegite, granted him bail in the sum of N100, 000 with two sureties in like sum.
Adegite ordered that the sureties must be gainfully employed and must present to the court evidence of tax payments.
The Magistrate subsequently adjourned the case till March 24, 2016 for further hearing.
Comments