By AbdulRaheem Aodu
Kaduna
The Senior Magistrate’s Court sitting in Kaduna yesterday ordered that two suspected rapists of a six-year-old girl (name withheld); Yahaya Mohammed, 71, and Mohammed Yusuf, 30, be remanded in Kaduna prison custody till July 14, 2016, when the case would come up for hearing.
The offence is punishable under Sections 283 and 285 of the Penal Code.
Yahaya, who claimed to have eight children from two wives, while confessing to raping the minor, said the allegation levelled against him was true but failed to provide concrete reason for his misdeed, just as he admitted to previously raping a minor.
“This is my second time of raping a minor. Presently I have a case at the police station for raping a different victim and the case is ongoing. What happen to me is that, I follow my heart to commit the act and I have destroyed my life completely.
“I have eight children and they are all alive and I have two wives but my first wife left me immediately she learnt of the crime I committed.”
The state prosecutor, Inspector Akinga Akila, presented the accused persons before Magistrate Naheed Abdallah on charges of rape and gross indecency.
He said: “The accused was seen coming out of an uncompleted building and adjusting his trouser, which raises suspicion and the child was found crying with what look like sperm on her clothes.
“When asked, the crying child said the man dragged her into the building put his manhood in her private part and also said that the second accused Yusuf had on two occasion equally play with his manhood on her private part.”
After reading the charges, Akila explained to the accused persons, that the court lacked jurisdiction to try them, but that they were brought to the court to be remanded in prison pending advice from the Ministry of Justice.
The magistrate adjourned till July 14, for further mention, pending advice from the Ministry of Justice, and ordered that the accused be remanded in prison.
Mother of the victim, Hindatu Mohammed, expressed joy with the outcome, but insisted on justice for her toddler child.
However, a member of International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Mrs. J. Agada-Talayo, described the act of rape as the highest act of indecency for men of their age, vowing that FIDA would follow the case to conclusion.
