Two men were apprehended by officials of the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for allegedly raping and impregnating four schoolgirls in Abuja.
41-year-old Festus Femi, an installation Engineer was accused of raping three school students of Government Secondary School, Bwari while 51-year-old Luka Gabriel Ekundayo, Bursar of Government Secondary School Dangara, Abaji, Abuja was also alleged too.
In a statement signed on Tuesday and released to Newsmen by the NAPTIP’s Head of Press and Public Relations Unit, Stella Nezan pointed that Femi was apprehended by men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), and referred to NAPTIP for further investigations and prosecution while Ekundayo was arrested by the agency’s officials for allegedly drugging, raping and impregnating a 15-year-old student.
Nezan stated that Festus Femi, through an accomplice, used threats and money to lure the three victims who are between the ages of 13 and 15.
The spokesman of the agency furtherly stressed that while “the suspect, Luke Gabriel Ekundayo, from Ilorin, Kwara State, was the victim’s guardian in school, and she spent short holidays in his house. The victim, a senior secondary three (SS3) student took ill in Mr. Ekundayo’s house, and upon taking some drugs administered to her by the suspect, she passed out. On waking up, she saw bloodstains and said she felt uneasy, but did not suspect that the school Bursar, whom her grandmother handed her over to, for protection, could do anything sinister to her.
“The victim, an orphan who was on scholarship, was threatened by the suspect into having sex with him continuously, or he would tell her sponsors to stop paying her school fees. The rape continued until the victim got pregnant”.
According to Nezan, the Director-General of NAPTIP, Dame Julie Okah-Donli, while reacting to the news of the arrest, condemned the actions of the two men, and disclosed that NAPTIP acted in line with the name-and-shame policy of the Agency.
She was quoted as saying: “Rapists would be prosecuted for their crime against humanity and NAPTIP will not hesitate to bring the full wrath of the law on any rapists”.
She further frowned at the high rate of rape in the society and cautioned schoolgirls to be careful of the kind of friends they keep, warning that a lot of teenagers are led astray by fellow teenagers, who are unfortunately victims of the crime themselves.
“In addition, the DG admonished parents to “be careful of who they entrust their children with as it is unfortunate that the people who are meant to protect the children are the ones who end up exploiting and abusing them”
“The NAPTIP Boss also commended the efforts of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps for arresting and referring the case to the Agency for proper prosecution, and used the opportunity to call on the public to report any rape case within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to NAPTIP,” Nezan noted.
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