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| IGP, Mohammed Adamu |
A suspected rapist, simply identified as
Kelechi, has escaped from police detention at Ajiwe Police Station, Lagos
State.
The suspect was alleged to have
disappeared from police detention a few hours after he was arrested for
attempting to sexually violate an 11-year-old girl.
The Executive Director of Rule of Law
and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), Mr Okechukwu Nwanguma, who had
taken up the case, seeking justice for the minor, said that several attempts to
find out from the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Ajiwe Police
Station, how Kelechi escaped, had been abortive. Nwanguma explained that the
DPO didn’t pick his calls and didn’t respond to text messages.
Nwanguma added: “The suspect, Kelechi
attempted to rape a minor on Friday. The matter was reported same day by the
victim's mother, Amaka, at Ajiwe Police Station and the Investigating Police
Officer (IPO), Niyilola Olayinka was assigned the case. The accused, who was
arrested that same day, was said to have escaped from police custody.”
Nwanguma later got in touch with the
Area J Police Command, Ajah, who confirmed that three policewomen have been
arrested in connection with the disappearance of the suspect from police
detention.
The victim’s mom, Amaka recounted how
her daughter was almost violated.
She said: “There are three flats in our
compound. Our landlord, Mr Kelechi and I. My other children are in boarding
school. My daughter returned at about 3pm. She went out to collect the laundry outside
and saw Kelechi returning from work. Later, she noticed that Kelechi had
switched on his generator and went there to charge phone. As neighbours in the
compound, we used to go to one another’s flats to charge phones. He asked her
if her mother was around, she said no.”
Amaka said that when Kelechi realised
that he was all alone with the little girl in the compound, he drew closer,
held her hands and dragged her into his bedroom. She asked him, “Uncle Kelechi,
what are you doing, he responded that she would be all right. That she
shouldn’t worry.”
Amaka continued: “She told me that he
removed her shorts and then removed his, raised her top and started touching
her breasts, she started struggling and kicked him. She screamed and the dog in
the compound started barking furiously. Kelechi probably thought that someone
had returned and allowed her to escape. But before he allowed her, he warned
her not to tell her mom, threatening to kill her and her mom if she revealed
what transpired.”
Amaka said that some minutes later,
after Kelechi realised that nobody had returned and that the dog had only been
barked, he went to their window, coaxing the girl to come out. The girl ran
into her mom’s room and quickly called her mom.
“When my daughter called me, she was
shaking and frightened. I could hear the fear in her voice. She told me that
uncle Kelechi wanted to rape her. I quickly called our landlady, who returned
and went straight to our flat and found Kelechi loitering around our flat. She
took my daughter to her place, “said Amaka.
When Amaka returned, she went to Ajiwe
Police Station to lodge a complaint and Kelechi was arrested.
She added: “Right in my presence, at the
police station, Kelechi confessed to the crime. You can imagine my shock when I
received information the following day that he has escaped from police
detention. It’s not funny. Kelechi must have been doing this same thing to
other children. He has to be stopped. How can he go missing?”
Our reporter gathered that the attempted
matter had been transferred to the State Criminal Intelligence and
Investigations Department (SCIID), Panti, Yaba for further investigation. It
was also gathered that the police at SCIID, for reasons yet unknown, have
arrested and detained Kelechi’s wife.
Nwanguma, who was angry over the proxy
arrest, asked: “I don't know what may have transpired. Why is the fugitive
suspect's wife held? I'm told that the alleged rapist is still in hiding,
calling the victim's parents and begging them for 'settlement'. Again, I don't
know why the suspect’s wife is being held.
Is she held in lieu of her husband or is there evidence that she's
complicit in the alleged crime? I have asked the victim’s parents to give me
the contacts of the Police officers currently investigating the case at SCIID,
so that I can ascertained from them the reason for holding the suspect's wife
and to also find out what efforts they are making to apprehend the culprit,
what they want to do with the officers on duty when he 'escaped' and how they
intend to proceed with the case generally.”
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