A secondary school leaver turned farmer, Ikumuyi Isreal has reportedly raped a ten-year-old primary school girl, Esther Friday to death in Igbotako, Okitipupa council area of Ondo State.
But for timely intervention, Israel who was beaten black and blue would have been lynched by neighbours of the deceased parents.
The suspect, aged 27-year-old who was handed over to the police said in his statement that he decided to become a farmer after his secondary school education and was following his mother to the farm.
According to him, it was the deceased that approached him in his house asking him to give her money.
“She came to meet me in my kitchen asking me for money, but I told her the money I have is to cook soup.
“After some time, she came back to meet me but this time she followed me from the kitchen for the bedroom still begging me for money. l later gave her N100 and slept with her in the room.
He stated that as she lay beside him on the bed, he developed an amorous feeling for her since he has no girlfriend.
Isreal said that none of the girls he approached for a relationship agreed to date him. “I don’t mean to rape her, but when she slept with me on the bed. I felt aroused and decided to quickly have sexual intercourse with her.
“l did not force her to have sex. We were together on the bed. Trouble started when I was trying to put my penis inside her vagina, it did not enter very well.
“My penis did not penetrate despite all my efforts to make sure I insert it. It did not fully enter.
“I covered her mouth with my cover cloth so that she could not raise alarm, she was crying, but nobody could hear or come for her help, it was then that she suffocated to death.
“She died when I was having sex with her. She was in my room from 4:30 pm till 6:00 pm. “l became afraid after she died, I could not come out of my room when her parents began to look for her”.
He told the police that he was in the room with the deceased when he heard one Mummy Peju passing by the door and said they were looking for the deceased.
According to him “one Baba Awu called me and when I opened the door to answer him some of our neighbours came into his room and started beating him.
“It was in the process that they came into my room and found the dead body of the girl on my bed.
“They beat me before they handed me over to policemen.”
Meanwhile, the suspect has been remanded in Owo prison by an Akure Magistrates’ Court sitting at Oke-Eda. According to the charge sheet, the accused person allegedly committed the offence at about 4:30 pm, at Akinfosile Village via Igbotako, in Ondo State on 2 February 2021.
The prosecutor, Inspector Uloh Goodluck while presenting the facts of the case before the court said that the accused person killed Esther, by raping her to death. Goodluck said that the offence committed by the accused person contravened sections 316, 319(1) of the Criminal Code Cap 37, Vol. 1 Laws of the Ondo State of Nigeria 2006. He urged the court to remand the accused person in prison custody pending the outcome of the legal advice from the department of public prosecution.
According to the prosecution, “the girl’s parents were from Isoko and came to the farm and live in Akinfosile. “They lived with their children in the community and in the same neighbourhood with the accused person.
“The deceased had told her mother who was processing cassava flakes that she was pressed and asked for permission to visit the toilet but made a detour to Ikumuyi’s house.
“The mother was busy with her chores and did not remember to look for her daughter until the father, Friday Egbenere came back from the farm and asked for the whereabouts of the girl. “
They had looked for her around the vicinity but they could not find her and had to report it to the village head at Akinfosile.
“Afterwards, a team was sent out to look for her until they eventually discovered her in the accused person’s room and got him arrested.
The trial Magistrate N. T Aladejana ordered him remanded in Owo correctional centre pending the outcome of DPP advice. Aladejana adjourned the matter till 3 May 2021, for mention.
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