Photo: Okada Rider Rapes 14-year-old Tuberculosis Patient in Lagos

                            
A 35-year-old man, Andrew Ekanem, has been arrested by the police for allegedly raping his neighbour’s daughter in the Bariga area of Lagos State. 

And according to PUNCH Metro, the 14-year-old victim was still undergoing a six-month treatment for tuberculosis when she was attacked by the suspect on Monday morning. She was the first of her parents’ children. 

The mother of the victim, Mrs. Adenike Aderinkomi, a trader, told PUNCH at their house on Akilo Street that her daughter went to ease herself in the early hours of the morning when she was cornered by the Cross River State indigene. She claimed the suspect penetrated her daughter through the anus and vagina. She said: 

 “It was around 2am on Monday when my daughter woke up and said she wanted to go and ease herself. I was having my quiet time and didn’t know when I slept off. I woke up about 15 minutes later and didn’t see her in the room. I woke her father up and he said he didn’t know her whereabouts. We both became anxious and went outside to search for her. Another neighbour also joined us in the search.”

 She said she was shouting her daughter’s name in the backyard, but did not get any response. Aderinkomi said about 10 minutes later, her husband saw their daughter coming out of Ekanem’s room. People overwhelmed her with a barrage of questions, but the Primary six pupil insisted she went to ease herself.

Her mother said she pulled her away from the growing crowd of neighbours and pressed her to talk.

“My daughter became afraid. She then told me that while she was on her way to ease herself, Ekanem grabbed her and took her inside his room to sleep with her. She said while I was shouting her name, he covered her mouth. People seized him and wanted to beat him up. But I had to quickly report the matter to the police very early in the morning so people would not take the law into their hands,”  she said.

 Aderinkomi said she was surprised because when her daughter fell critically ill in February, last year, Ekanem assisted her family in taking her to Calabar, the Cross River State capital, for traditional treatment.