A 30-year-old Nigerian businessman, Joshua Collins, on Wednesday appeared before an Ebute Meta Magistrates’ Court in Lagos, charged with raping a 6-year-old girl.
Collins, a resident of Oderemo Street, Somolu, Lagos, is facing a two-count charge of indecent assault and rape.
Police prosecutor R. Odigie said the crime was committed on 25 January at about 3 p.m. at the defendant’s residence and that the accused who was squatting with a friend, lived in the same compound with the girl’s parents.
He said that on the fateful day, the girl and her friends were playing in the compound when Collins called her into the flat he shared with his friend. The prosecutor said that when the girl’s mother noticed her absence in the house, she asked her older sister to look for her.
Odigie said that the older sister saw the little girl coming out of the flat occupied by the accused.
“She came out of the place and was shaking and when questioned tried to lie about where she had been. But when her mother beat her, she confessed that it was Uncle Collins that called her,” the prosecutor said.
He said the girl also alleged that the defendant had sex with her by putting his fingers and genital into her private part.
Odigie said that when her mother conducted an investigation, she discovered that the girl’s pant was stained with blood.
He said that the alleged offences contravened the provisions of Sections 135 and 137 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Lagos State2011.
The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The Chief Magistrate, Miss S.O. Solebo, granted him bail in the sum of N200,000 with two sureties in like sum, and ordered that the sureties should each pay N100,000 into the account of the court’s Chief Registrar.
She transferred the case to the family court because of the age of the girl, and adjourned the case to 20 February for mention.
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