The Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Nasarawa State has arrested five suspects for allegedly gang-raping a 14-year-old girl.The state Commandant of the NSCDC, Mr. Andekin Musa, said the suspects were labourers working at a construction site in the Doma Local Government Area Market, while the girl was a sachet water seller in the area.
Those apprehended, according to the NSCDC, are Mr. Wada Mohammed (37years); Mr. Tanko Adamu (36 years); Mr. Abubakar Ogachi (40 years); Mr. Yusuf Ogar (35 years); and Mr. Samaila Ali (35 years).
He added that the suspects would be prosecuted after investigation had been concluded.
He said, “The rape took place on January 30, while arrests were made on February 1. They have all confessed to committing the offence.”
Musa said officers of the command in Doma had received a tip-off on February 1, leading to the apprehension of two of the suspects near Tudun Laraba community in Doma, while the three other suspects were later arrested on the same day in the Doma Market.
NSCDC boss explained that four of the suspects on January 30 tricked the girl into an uncompleted building beside the Doma Market and took turns to rape her repeatedly.
Musa said, “The suspects raped the girl in an uncompleted building near the market. They tricked her into the building, saying they would buy all the sachets of water, but raped her.”
The commandant further stated that the four suspects, after their arrests, implicated the fifth suspect, who also confessed to raping the girl.
“From our investigation, the suspects have been in the habit of raping underage girls. We have been receiving reports of similar cases in that area,” he said
Speaking in an interview with PUNCH Metro in Lafia, the state capital, one of the suspects, Ali, said that it was the devil that pushed him to commit the crime as it was not in his habit to rape women.
He said, “I have a wife and three children and I have never done this kind of thing before. It is the devil that pushed me to do it.”
The father of the girl, Mallam Umar Mohammed, commended the NSCDC for its prompt intervention in arresting the five suspects and expressed optimism that justice would be done.
