GIST: 10 year-old girl:My dad’s friend raped me five times

A 10-year old girl (name withheld) who lives at Agbado Ijaiye area of Lagos, southwest Nigeria, has alleged that her father’s best friend, Sunday Nwankwo, raped her five times in two years.Nwankwo was arraigned at the Magistrate’s Court 6, Ikeja and sent to Kirikiri Prison as he could not perfect the stringent bail conditions granted to him by the magistrate.

The accused had pleaded not guilty to the charge of defiling a minor and having carnal knowledge of her forcefully.

He was granted bail on the condition that he provides three sureties in kike sum of N100,000 each, three years evidence of tax payment to the government and each of the surety must possess landed property worth N5 million.The accused was alleged to have been having sex with the little girl since she was eight years old.

Test conducted on the girl at the Orile Agege General Hospital showed that she was no longer a virgin.

The alleged illicit act was exposed when the three-year old brother of the victim told their mother that somebody used to lay his sister down when nobody was around.

Their mother became curious and questioned the girl, who later revealed that Nwankwo had been having sex with her, saying that he had slept with her five times.

According to the girl’s mother,  “when I first asked her, she denied it but when I threatened to pour pepper on her, she opened up and said it was her father’s friend that slept with her. She said by the time I gave birth to my second son, that was the third time her father’s friend had slept with her. I gave birth to my second son two years ago, when she was eight years old.”She explained that because the church the family attended was far, she usually asked her daughter and the rest to go to the Four Square Church in Nwankwo’s compound, which gave the man the opportunity to carry out the alleged act.

She said: “my husband has been feeding Nwankwo for years. People even thought my husband was his younger brother because of their closeness.”

The 10-year old girl, who is in Junior Secondary School 1, had explained to her mother and the Esther Child Rights Foundation, which pursued the matter, that Nwankwo would lay her down on a plank after putting a foam on top of it and then have carnal knowledge of her.

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