Kanyi Okeke
Mr Abubakar Suleiman a 45-year old Hausa petty trader, has been sent to Kirikiri Prison for allegedly having carnal knowledge of three minors inside his shop at Shasha area of Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial hub.
Two of the children aged 7 and 5 are from the same parents, while the last one is three years old.
It was gathered that Suleiman allegedly enticed the kids into a kiosk with biscuits and sweets and then defiled them.
Suleiman’s act was exposed when curious neighbours suspected there was strange movement of kids inside his kiosk. They moved in and discovered he was defiling the children.
He was arrested when the children confessed that he defiled them to the neighbors who raised the alarm.
The suspect was arrested by the police but was later released as the culprit was said to be close to some powerful Hausa Serikis in the area.
It was after a Non-Governmental Organisation, NGO, Africa for Human Rights, AFRIRIGHTS, led by Comrade Afolabi Gbajumo intervened in the matter that the Area Commander ordered the re-arrest of Suleiman last Friday.
The NGO stormed the Area ‘M’ Police Division on Monday to spur the police to arraign the culprit in court.
Suleiman was taken to Ejigbo magistrate’s court for prosecution.
Suleiman was slammed with a two-count charge of having unlawful carnal knowledge of two children, aged 5 and 7 at the Family Court, Ikejam as the matter was classified as defilement and could not be entertained at the magistrate’s court.
Having pleaded not guilty, the presiding judge ordered that the accused be remanded at the Kirikiri Prison and brought to court on 18 June, 2012.
However, the case of the third child aged three, allegedly defiled by Suleiman, was not brought to court yesterday.
According to Gbajumo, her case would be filed today as the test conducted on her had just been released.
Meanwhile, the test conducted on the other two victims by the Orile-Agege General Hospital showed that the hymen of the victims had been broken, showing that they were actually defiled.
