CYRIACUS IZUEKWE
Facts have emerged on how a Police Sergeant, Mohammed Alidu, attached to Makinde Division in Oshodi area of Lagos, allegedly raped his colleague’s 9-year old daughter inside Police Barracks in Lagos.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that the incident happened in 2018 at Makinde Police Barracks in Mafoluku area of Oshodi, Lagos, where the victim’s parents reside with Alidu.
He was then arrested, charged before the Court and the DPP’s advice found him culpable and recommended for his trial over defilement which attracts several years of imprisonment if he is tried and found guilty before the Court.
The trial of Alidu commenced on Thursday after the mother of the victim, a 45-year-old Policewoman (name withheld) narrated to an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court how a fellow officer, Alidu, defiled her daughter inside the barracks.
The Policewoman was the second Prosecution Witness (PW2) in the of trial of Alidu, led in evidence by Mr. Akin George, Deputy-Director, Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
She said that the defendant accosted her daughter (name withheld) on her way home from school, dragged her into his house and defiled her.
“We live at Makinde Barracks, Mafoluku, Oshodi, Lagos.
“On June 29, 2018, I was at work when my husband, who was out of Lagos, called to inform me that Sgt. Mohammed defiled our daughter. I went to the Police station, which was within the same compound of the barracks and my daughter was at the Police station.”
“My daughter told me that when she was coming back from school, Mohammed called her but she did not respond. She said he forcefully took her to his apartment, put her on a bed, tore her underwear and defiled her,” she said.
According to her, Mohammed was also at the Police station, begging and telling the Divisional Police Officer that it was the work of the devil.
The Policewoman said that her daughter was taken to the Mirabel Centre (a sexual assault referral centre) for medical examination, and doctors confirmed that she was defiled.
During cross-examination by defence counsel, Mr. Sunday Odise, the Policewoman told the Court that the defendant lived near her residence.
“He did not have a house within the barracks. He was sleeping in a shop opposite our home,” she said.
Earlier, the PW1 and the Investigative Police Officer of the case, Sgt. Juweratu Ashiru, told the Court that shortly after the alleged defilement, the victim reported the incident at the Police station.
“She told me that when Mohammed dragged her into the wooden house he lived, to defile her, she screamed during her ordeal and that no one rescued her.
“Mohammed was arrested at the wooden house where the crime occurred, and when we took his confessional statement, he said that it was the devil’s work.
“He said we should forgive him and drop the case, but we refused and said that he must face the full wrath of the law.
“The victim’s underwear was torn. I recovered the underwear and it was kept as an exhibit in the Gender Unit of the Police Force,” Ashiru said.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Abiola Soladoye, ordered members of the public to leave the Court room when the victim, now 10-year-old, was to give evidence before the Court thereafter the judge adjourned the case until 15th January, 2020, for continuation of of trial.