UNILAG GRADUATE ’ RAPES NINE-YEAR - OLD , FLEES

December 2, 2014 was a sad day for
Mrs . Bilikis Balogun. That day, she
learnt that her innocent nine - year- old
girl , Nofisat, had been sexually
assaulted by their 30 -year -old
neighbour, Ikechukwu Obasi , while she
was in the market .

“He has fled his apartment since the
incident . But I just want him to face
justice and get punishment for what he
did to my daughter , ” she said .
“I have never thought that the man
could do that to my daughter .

He was
such a friendly person in our
compound . All I know about him is
that he is a ‘ Yahoo-Yahoo guy’ ( a
description for young men who
specialise in internet fraud ) .
According to Bilikis , she was in the
market when her daughter came crying,
and told her the story about how their
neighbour took advantage of her at
their 83, Aina Street , Pako Aguda
home , in Surulere, Lagos .

Nofisat, a quiet and shy girl , whose
eyes showed the painful memory of the
experience she had gone through , told
our correspondent that she did not
suspect anything when Ikechukwu
came into the room where she was
reading in their apartment and gave
her a N 1, 000 note to go and buy food
for him.

She said , “I bought the food and took
it to him . But because the food vendor
did not give me back N 850 change, he
said I should go back and collect it.
When I brought the change back to
him , he locked the door.

“He then used a cloth to cover my
mouth and I could not shout . He then
carried me to the bed and did it.

When
he finished and I was bleeding , he said
I should not tell anybody. ”
The neighbour told her to go and
report the incident to her mother in the
market .

Later that afternoon , the girl
narrated what Ikechukwu did to her to
another resident of the compound , who
spotted her crying in front of
Ikechukwu ’ s room.
But by the time they got back ,
Ikechukwu had locked his room and
fled. He has not been seen since then .

Ikechukwu ’ s phone number which was
provided to our correspondent , has not
been available as well.

However , our correspondent visited his
Facebook page with the name Eyekay
Da Stika Obasi , where he posted
photos up until January 2, 2015 .
He
had yet to respond to a message sent
to him as of the time of filing this
report .

Ikechukwu ’ s Facebook page states
that he attended the University of
Lagos and studied Psychology even
though this could not be verified as a
result of the fact that he did not state
when he graduated .

The case was reported at the Aguda
Police Division , Surulere, but the police
said they had been unable to take any
action because the culprit had fled.
However , Ikechukwu’ s family had
approached Nofisat’ s family, pleading
to pay monetary compensation to
settle the matter.
“How can they tell me they want to pay
N 40, 000 so that I would forget my
daughter was raped ? All I want is
justice for my daughter . They have
refused to produce the man ,” Nofisat’ s
mother said .

When our correspondent spoke with
the investigating police officer in
charge of the case, he explained that
he was still on the trail of Ikechukwu .

“We cannot refer to the case as a rape ,
it is defilement . But in the meantime,
the two families are trying to settle. I
have asked the family of the victim to
come to my office but they have not
come, ” the IPO , who pleaded
anonymity , said .
Child Rights Activist , Mrs . Esther
Ogwu , has called upon the police to do
more than just tell the family of the
suspect to produce him .

She said , “The police should do a
thorough job of tracking down the
young man . Who knows the kind of
fetish thing he might have done to the
girl ?
“This is a lesson to parents to be wary
of neighbours they leave their children
alone with. ”

Posted in: Police,rape