60-yr-old village head arrested over defilement of 8-yr-old

· CP worried over too many defilement cases

WORRIED by the increase in the defilement of male and female minors in Jigawa State, the new Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Henry Fadairo, has said that his command would henceforth parade anyone arrested in connection with rape, with the aim of exposing such to public ridicule.

Mr Fadairo stated this during the parade of Abubakar Ya’u, a 60-year-old village head who was arrested on alleged defilement of an eight-year-old primary school pupil.

Ya’u was recently paraded alongside three others rapist who were arrested from different area in the state at the state’s police command headquarters.

The police commissioner, who was represented by the command’s image maker, SP Abdu Jinjiri, disclosed that the arrested 60-year-old man happened to be the head of the village where the victim lived.

The commissioner said that the arrest of the village head was as a result of a complaint by the victim’s mother at Garki police station that her daughter was waylaid by the suspect on her way to school, after which he took her to his room and allegedly defiled her.

According to him, the command recorded 57 rape cases from January to June, out of which 32 were against girl children while the remaining 25 cases were sodomy against minors.

Fadairo stated further that “out of the 32 rape cases, 28 were charged to court while 25 cases of sodomy were equally charged to court for prosecution”.

Other suspects paraded alongside the 60-year-old village head included 45-year-old suspect identified as Mohammed Abdullahi who was arrested for allegedly  defiling a 10-year-old girl (name withheld) in his room at Gumel Local Government Area of the state.

According to the commissioner of police, “in the process of investigation, police discovered and arrested another 25-year-old Naziru Mohammed for allegedly defiling the same girl and the suspects already confessed committing the crime.”

He added that another 40-year-old man, Idris Abdu, was also arrested for defiling a nine-year-old girl in Gandun Sarki quarters area of Hadejia Local Government Area.

Fadairo expressed concern over the increase in rape cases in the state, saying that his command had resolved to be exposing any person accused of rape through the media to serve as deterrent to others.

Speaking with Crime Reports, the village head denied committing the offence, saying: “I don’t even know the girl. I swear that I never committed such offence, I’m innocent of what I’m being accused of.”

The suspect claimed that he had a misunderstanding with the mother of the said girl over a debt, saying that it must have prompted the allegation against him.

According to him, “there was a man in the village who was indebted to many people, including the mother of the girl. Things went bad that the man ran away from the village to Taraba State. The man sent message from where he was and directed that his farmland should be sold to pay his debts.

“We were able to sell the land for N70,000 which was not enough to pay all the man’s debts, so I decided to make part payments to his creditors. But the girl’s mother insisted on collecting her entire money and I said it was not possible. Since then, she had been keeping malice with me. This is all what I know.”