The victim, mommoh street. Photo credit: Samson Folarin |
A 60-year-old bricklayer, Segun Benson, has been accused of
raping and damaging the private parts of a primary six pupil on Mommoh Street
in the Agege area of Lagos State.
Benson, who has an aged mother, was said to have never been
married, while attempts by his mother to get him a wife had continually been
turned down.
After he allegedly ravished the victim, he was said to have
sent her out, despite the flow of blood from her private parts.
Residents had sighted the victim in a public bathroom
writhing in pain. After bleeding from her private parts for a while, the
14-year-old was said to have collapsed.
She reportedly told concerned residents that Segun tricked
her into his room with N50 and raped her.
A resident and an eyewitness, who identified herself simply
as Iya Egun, told PUNCH Metro she initially thought the victim was having her
menstrual flow. She said:
“I saw her writhing
in pain in a bathroom. She said she wanted to defecate, but I saw blood coming
out of her private parts. I raised the alarm and when other people arrived at
the scene, she said it was Segun that raped her.”
A relative, Okunloye Kehinde, said the victim’s private
parts had been damaged. He said:
“I got a call
around 2pm that fateful Saturday. When I got there, I saw a crowd of people
around her. I saw a container filled with blood. Even her clothes were drenched
in blood.”
Kehinde said he went with the victim’s father to report the
incident at the Elere Police Division. The police, in company with some
relatives of the victim, arrested the suspect in his house. The victim who
walked with some difficulty said:
“I am in primary
six. On Friday, he gave me N50 to buy sweet for myself. He then asked me to
caress his private parts. When I told him I would tell my daddy, he said I
should not go home.
“He took me to his
house around Railway Line where he raped me. I was there from 3pm till around
7pm. I started bleeding from his house and when I got home the blood did not
stop. But I kept it secret until Saturday when people saw it.”
Her mother, Taibat, said she had never met the suspect
before,
“I have seven kids
and she is the third child. I was sleeping when people called me that my
daughter had been raped. I have never met the man before though he lives on the
street. The government should take over the case and do what is right,” she
said.
The suspect’s mother, Mrs. Tinuke Benson, who is in her
nineties was also reached to talk about the incident. The woman, while fighting
back tears, pleaded with PUNCH Metro to intervene on her behalf because the
suspect was her only son. She said:
“Segun is my only
child. I had four other children and they are all dead. He is the reason for my
living. I don’t know why he did what he did.
“Each time I tried
to get him a wife, he refused and told me he was old enough to look for a woman
for himself. He said that many times without getting a wife. Please help me
because he’s my hope.”
When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer, Kenneth
Nwosu, said the case had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation
Department, Yaba.
He said, “The victim has also been taken to the hospital for
necessary tests and the suspect is in custody.”
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