I lured my victim with N10 sweet, says rape suspect

A 30-year-old rape suspect, Mohammed Abubakar, yesterday admitted luring a nine-year-old primary four pupil with a N10 lollipop sweet.

Abubakar, a commercial motorcyclist and resident of Tudun Fulani in Bosso Local Government of Niger State, was being interrogated by Niger State Child Right Protection Agency.

He said: “I saw the girl outside her school where I had parked my motorcycle to buy sweet and she told me to give her sweet.

“I gave her sweet, lured her to an uncompleted building and had sex with her.

“I’m a married man. I have a three-month-old baby. I have not been sleeping with my wife because she just gave birth. I was tempted to have sex with the girl.

“I only had sex with her once. I am sorry.”

The victim said: “He usually lures me to an uncompleted building close to the school during break.

“He will touch my buttocks and finger me.

“He gave me sweet and promised to give me N6,000 if I did not tell anyone about the act.”

The victim’s teacher, Hajiya Saratu Salihu, who reported the matter to the agency, said she started suspecting the victim following her frequent absence from class.

According to her, the victim always disappears during break and will not return to school.

“When I started suspecting that the girl was up to something, I monitored her movement until I caught her outside the school premises with the suspect on November 20.

“When she entered the school, another teacher and I took her to the bathroom, checked her private part and realised she had been deflowered.

“We questioned her and even caned her before she confessed that an Okada rider had been sexually molesting her secretly.

“We then started monitoring the suspect until he was caught while trying to lure the victim,” the teacher said.

The Director-General of the agency, Mrs. Mairam Kolo, said pupils were mostly abused during break.

She said the agency would meet the Ministry of Education to emphasise the need for pupils not to leave school premises alone during break and after closing.

“We have embarked on a sensitisation campaign to let parents know the dangers involved in allowing children go out without monitoring them,” she said.

Kolo said the suspect would be transferred to the State Criminal Department for further investigation, while the victim will be treated.