Police arrest 4 for allegedly defiling minors in Benue

The police in Benue State have arrested four persons for their alleged involvement in the defiling of several minors at different locations in the state. Daily Trust reports that the suspects; Fidelis Iorapuu, 50, Samuel Ene, 53, Uwanyi Kenneth, 29 and Shuaibu Haruna, 35, allegedly committed the crime at their business places on different occasions. […]

The police in Benue State have arrested four persons for their alleged involvement in the defiling of several minors at different locations in the state.

Daily Trust reports that the suspects; Fidelis Iorapuu, 50, Samuel Ene, 53, Uwanyi Kenneth, 29 and Shuaibu Haruna, 35, allegedly committed the crime at their business places on different occasions.

The spokesman for the police in the state, Moses Joel Yamu, who paraded the suspects, yesterday, at the command’s headquarters in Makurdi, said the arrests were made possible following the recent public awareness created by protesters in the case of 13-year-old Elizabeth Ochanya Ogbanje allegedly raped to death.

Yamu said the outrage which the late teenager’s death generated among residents led some activists to schools and other public places where they educated as well as encouraged children suffering sexual molestation to speak out, adding that the outcome of such awareness programme resulted in the apprehension of the four suspects fingered by some minors from different areas of the state.

Speaking in an interview with our correspondent, one of the suspects, Iorapuu, a father of four from Kastina-Ala LGA of the state, admitted to the crime, saying, he made three unsuccessful attempt on a 12-year-old at his place of work in Makurdi but that the matter was settled at a family level after the girl reported him to her elder sister.

“Yes, I committed the crime but it is not actually true. I attempted three times but the girl refused, I only succeeded in touching her breasts. She reported to her sister and we later settled the matter in the house.

“Few days ago, I was arrested after she (girl) told her teacher in school that I was raping her. But I never went beyond those attempts I made thrice. What I did was bad and my conscience judged me so I stayed away, especially after I was cautioned,” Iorapuu said.

The other three suspects all denied the allegations against them, adding that they did not even know the children that brought the allegations against them.

Ene, a businessman from Enugu State but based in Zaki Biam town of Ukum LGA of the state, said he was at his home with his family of seven children when a crowd besieged his house alleging that he raped a little girl at his business place.

The 53-year-old added that he was thoroughly beaten before some persons rescued him and took him the nearest police station, adding that he persistently pleaded not guilty to the accusation.

Similarly, Kenneth, a native of Enugu State, who lives in Okpoga in Okpokwu LGA of the state, said some of his kinsmen made the allegation that he raped one Mama Precious’s seven-year-old daughter, an accusation he claimed to know nothing about.

Also, Haruna, a sugar-cane farmer in Makurdi who hails from Kano State, said he was not responsible for the rape of a five-year-old now hospitalised that he was being accused of.

Meanwhile the police spokesman said the suspects would be charged to court and urged other minors who are secretly being sexually violated to speak out so that the law would catch up with the offenders. He also called on parents to report such matters to the police so as to nip children abuses in the bud rather than settling the issues quietly at family level.