A Lagos Magistrates Court, sitting in Ikeja, has remanded one Alhaji Dauda Adebowale, 78, in prison custody for allegedly raping an 11-year-old girl.
The incident, which occurred in June at Pen Cinema, in the Agege area of the state, saw Adebowale, who hails from Abeokuta, Ogun State, beckoning on the 11-year-old to help him run some errands.
Upon the 11-year-old’s return, the old man allegedly dragged her into a shop where he forcefully had his way on her while threatening to take her life if she disclosed what transpired.
Adebowale was said to have taken advantage of the girl’s fear and subsequently raped her severally.
The act was however discovered on August 2, when the 11-year-old, who was sleeping beside her mother, suddenly woke up, screaming “penis,” to the amazement of the mother.
Following her sudden scream, the minor was interrogated by the mother, leading to her opening up.
She said, “On that Sunday, I was ill and was sleeping. She also slept beside me. She suddenly cried out, shouting, ‘Penis, Penis, Penis’. I was shocked. When I asked her what happened, she said it was a man on our street that had been having sex with her.
“I followed her to the man’s house. Some boys confronted him and he confessed to them. I then reported him at the Area G Police Command in Ogba and he was arrested. I took my daughter to a hospital for tests because she has become lean.
The medical result showed that her vagina had been tampered with and I have given it to the police.”
While throwing more light to the matter, the minor stressed that the septuagenarian raped her on several occasion.
The minor affirmed, “I was passing by a shop on our street one Saturday afternoon when he called me. He was sitting outside the shop and told me to help him bring a document inside the shop. I was about to leave after I gave him the document when he dragged me inside and locked the door.
“He covered my mouth and raped me. He threatened to kill me if I told anybody. The following day, he called me again and repeated the same thing. I can’t remember how many times he had sex with me. Whenever I told him I would tell my mother, he would say I was playing with my life.
“When I could no longer bear it, I opened up to a woman in our area and she promised that she would make sure the man was evicted from the shop.
“It was few days after that my mother said she heard me shout ‘joystick’ while I was asleep.”
The septuagenarian was subsequently charged before an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court on three counts bordering on rape.
The charges reads, “That you, Alhaji Dauda Adebowale, 78, sometime in 2015, at a shop in Pen Cinema, Agege, Lagos, in the Ikeja Magisterial District, did have sexual intercourse with one 11-year-old girl.
“That you, within the same period and place in the aforementioned magisterial district, did sexually assault one 11-year-old girl.”
Adebowale however denied carrying out the act which contravenes sections 137, 166 and 257 of the Criminal Law II, Vol. 44 of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2011.
The presiding magistrate, Mr. T. Elias, granted the the 78-year-old bail in the sum of N1m with two sureties each in like sum while adjourning the matter till September 2.
Elias however ordered that he be remanded in prison custody till he is able to perfect his bail.
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