A 25-year-old woman, Nnena Okoro, has been
arrested by the police after she reportedly lured a
14-year-old girl, Faith (pseudonym) to a hotel,
where a man raped her.
Nnena Okoro lives in Sumoratu Estate, off Ojo Road,
Lagos State, where the victim resides. She was
said to have been Faith’s aunt.Report has it that, on the noon of May
16, when the girl’s aunt, with whom she lives,
was not around, Okoro approached her and
requested that she accompanied her to the
Barracks area to buy mangoes.
It was learnt that Okoro rejected the mangoes
available in the area and went to Wowo, a nearby
street, where the hotel was located.
Our correspondent was told that Okoro, who had
allegedly collected an undisclosed amount from
the fleeing rapist, lured Faith into a room in the
hotel and shut the door.
Faith said her mouth was covered, as Nnena
aided the man to rape her.
She said, “Aunty Nnena (Okoro) said I should
follow her to buy mangoes in Barracks Lane. She
did not like the mangoes they had there and she
said we should go to Ojo Road. We went to a
hotel and met a man, who she called her friend.
Aunty Nnena told me to enter a room. Suddenly,
both of them dragged me to the bed. Nnena held
my hand and covered my mouth with a cloth.
The man pulled off my trousers and raped me.
He left the hotel immediately he finished doing it
and said he had paid Aunty Nnena.”
“I went outside crying. It was one woman around
the area that helped to clean the blood coming
out from my private parts when she saw me. She
later took me to the Layeni Police Station.”
In her statement to the police, Okoro, who hails
from Abia State, confessed to taking the girl to
the hotel. She denied coercing the victim into the
act and claimed that she had never met the man
prior to the incident.
She said, “Faith is my friend. On the fateful day,
we both went to buy mangoes on Ojo Road. On
getting to a hotel at Tolu, one man called her.
They both discussed and the man paid N500 to
the hotel attendant and they entered the room. I
later left them inside the room to ease myself. It
was when I came back that she told me that she
was raped. I did not know that she was a virgin.
We have never discussed anything like that
before. Her pants were stained with blood. I have
never seen the man before that day, but I can
recognise him if I see him again.”
As learnt that Okoro had been arraigned before an Apapa Magistrate’s Court on
two counts bordering on the crime, while the
police said they had launched a manhunt for the
suspect.
The charges read, “That you, Nnena Okoro, and
one other male, now at large, on May 16, 2015,
at about 3.20pm, at Graziela Hotel on Wowo
Street, Tolu, Ajegunle, in the Lagos Magisterial
District, did conspire to commit felony to wit;
defilement, and thereby committed an offence
punishable under Section 409 of the Criminal
Law of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2011.
“That you, Nnena Okoro, on the same date, time
and place in the aforementioned magisterial
district, did hold the hands of 14-year-old Faith to
the bed and allowed one other man at large to
have unlawful carnal knowledge of her, and
thereby committed an offence punishable under
Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State of
Nigeria, 2011.”
The accused pleaded not guilty.
A police prosecutor, ASP Olusoji Ojaokomo, said
a medical test conducted on the girl revealed that
her hymen had been ruptured.
The defendant’s counsel pleaded with the court
to grant bail to his client.
The presiding m agistrate, Mr. P.A. Adekomaya,
admitted her to bail in the sum of N100,000. He
adjourned the case till June 22, 2015.
