(i) “Daily Trust” newspaper front page March 10, 2022
Headline: How 13-year-old-girl was gang-raped in Lagos.”
A medical doctor, Mistura Shogunle, on Wednesday, narrated before an Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court how a 13-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by seven men in her neighbourhood.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Shogunle testified at the trial of a 20-year-old fashion designer, Rasheed Fashola, for conspiracy and defilement of a girl.
Fashola had pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge.
Led in evidence by state counsel, Mrs Olasunbo Abiodun-Muniru, the doctor working at the Mirabel Centre (a sexual assault referral centre), said the minor came to the centre to seek medical attention on Sept. 28, 2020, a day after she was allegedly defiled.
The client said on Sept. 27, 2020, which was a Sunday, her father sent her on an errand, and seven boys in the neighbourhood stopped her.
They dragged her into an uncompleted building, her mouth was covered with a handkerchief and they took turns to rape her through unprotected penile intercourse into her vagina,” Shogunle said.
She said the survivor was calm and clinically stable during the medical examination and that she had no obvious physical injuries.
“There were, however, significant genital findings. The labia majora was normal but the labia minora (inner lips of the genital) had a bruise.
The doctor, also a certified forensic sexual assault examiner, testified that she asked the survivor’s father, who accompanied her, to throw more light on what happened to his daughter.
She said the father informed her that he sent his daughter on an errand and expected her to return home early but, instead, saw her with two men who came to his residence to tell him that his daughter had been defiled.
According to prosecution, Fashola, alongside others at large, committed the offence at about 8 pm on Sept. 27, 2020, in an uncompleted building at Oluwashina Junction, Itire, Lagos State.”
(ii) “Vanguard” newspaper front page March 10, 2022
Headline: Nigeria, a country not a nation – Obasanjo
“Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said Nigeria is a country that is yet to be merged into a nation.
The former Head of State stated this while speaking at the 2021/2022 School Debate Prize Presentation organised by the Vision Africa Radio, Umuahia, Abia State.
He declared that Nigeria would not make any headway as a country until she grew into nationhood, saying “One of the things we need to achieve is nation building. We have not built a nation yet. We have a country but we need to build it into a nation.”
Insisting that Nigeria would not progress until there is equality, justice and equal stake for everybody; Obasanjo said “We can’t make it unless we have equity and equality, and everybody having a stake in the project called Nigeria. Any family, state or country without equity and equality won’t have stability and can never have success.”
(iii) “Nigerian Tribune” newspaper front page March 10, 2022
Headline: “How we poisoned, strangled boy for recognising one of us.”
– Two siblings who kidnapped, killed eight-year-old – by Oluwatoyin Malik.
“Two siblings, Abdulrazak Waliu, aged 23, and Abdulrazak Illias (18) have spilled the beans on how they conspired to kidnap an eight-year-old pupil, Bamimore Kehinde Abdulraheem, for a ransom of N2 million before they decided to kill him by giving him rat poison and strangulating him when he recognised Ilias as his brother’s friend.
The two suspects were arrested in Saki town, where the incident occurred last Friday, by detectives from Saki Division of Oyo State Police Command, before their transfer to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Iyaganku, on Monday.
Also arrested were the suspects’ father, Abdulrazak Salaudeen and half brother, Abdulhamid.
Read also: Major-General (Dr.) Henry Edmund Olufemi Adefope – A Legacy of Honour (2)
Briefing journalists on the arrest on Wednesday, the state Commissioner of Police, Ngozi Onadeko, who was represented by the command’s Police Public Relations Officer, SP Adewale Osifeso, said that the arrest was sequel to a report by the victim’s father, Bamimore Abdulafeez that on March 4, at about 12noon, Abdulraheem and his twin brother, Abdullahi were returning from school when Abdulraheem was lured by the suspects, making him to leave his parents’ house to follow them to an unknown location.
The father told the police that all efforts made to locate the victim proved abortive.
Nigerian Tribune learnt that when the police invited the siblings for interrogation, they denied having anything to do with the missing twin, leading to a search party for the boy.
It was during the process that the decomposing body of the victim was found in an unoccupied building at Alubarika area Saki, on Monday.
The police commissioner said that during interrogation, Waliu and Ilias confessed to have conspired to kidnap the victim for ransom, but eventually killed him because he could identify them.
She made it known that further updates on the incident would be provided in due course as investigation continues.
Nigerian Tribune learnt that it was the deceased’s twin brother, Abdullahi Taiwo, who exposed the suspected killers when he was not seen at home after returning from school.
In an interview with Waliu, he said: “I planned with my younger brother, Ilias, to kidnap Abdulraheem Bamimore to collect ransom from his parents. What we intended to do was to tie our victim in a secluded place, call the parents to demand for ransom before his release after payment.
“He was coming from school when we stylishly asked him to get us water. When he came back with the water, we took him to a building near our parents’ house which had been completed but not yet occupied. We tied his hands and legs and asked him whether he could recognise either of us, to which he answered in the affirmative. We then thought that if we released him, he would go home to tell his parents about our plans for him and they would ask police to arrest us. That was why we decided to poison him.
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