A 26-year-old man, who allegedly pushed down his Facebook
lover from a multi-storey building due to a disagreement over sex was Friday
arraigned in Lagos.
The accused, Arthur Obiora is facing a
three-count charge of threat to life, attempted rape and attempt to cause
bodily harm at a Tinubu Magistrates’ Court.
The prosecutor, A. C. Orji (an
Assistant Superintendent of Police, ASP), told the court that Obiora met
Nkiruka Akabuogu on Facebook (a social media network) and invited her to
a clubhouse in Apapa, where they had drinks.
The prosecutor said the pair later
moved to Obiora’s house at Block 10, Flat 317, 1004 Housing Estate, Victoria
Island, Lagos.
Orji said Obiora, who claimed to be an
unemployed graduate of Igbinedion University, Okada in Edo State and the
Centennial College, Ontario in Canada, shut all the doors in the apartment and
demanded to have sex with Akabuogu.
“This was after he had smoked some
wraps of Indian hemp. He tried to rape her and threatened to kill her with a
bottle of beer.
“The girl, fearing for her life, then
jumped down from the third floor of the high/rise building,” Orji said.
The prosecutor said that the incident
happened about 3am. on October 31, this year.
“The girl was discovered lying
unconscious in a pool of her own blood about 30 minutes later by the security
men in the premises, who then reported it to the police.
“The police took the girl to a hospital
and after she regained consciousness, obtained her statement,” Orji said.
He continued: “This case highlights one
of the major problems of the social media. The young lady went to visit someone
she doesn’t know.
“She met the defendant on Facebook and
they had been chatting until October 30.”
Orji said that the offences contravened
Sections 56 (A), 260 and 404 (1) of the Criminal Laws of Lagos 2011.
The Magistrate, Mr. Martins Owumi,
granted the accused bail in the sum of N200,000, with two sureties in like sum.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
reports that 21-year-old Nkiruka sustained multiple injuries, including a
fractured pelvis, and is undergoing treatment at the General Hospital,
Marina, Lagos, following the incident.
Nkiruka, a Linguistics student of the
University of Lagos, had told NAN on her hospital bed that she went clubbing
with the young man she met on Facebook a week earlier and ended up in his
family home at 1004 Estate, Victoria Island, Lagos.
She noted that the young man had
earlier talked about sex on phone prior to the outing, but she told him she was
menstruating.
Nkiruka said that on getting to the
house, the man tore her dress and tried to rape her and thereafter pushed her
down from the third floor of the building, because of her refusal to
have sex with him.
But the mother of the young man, who
was at home on the night of the incident, told NAN that she was not aware of
what happened.
She claimed she slept around 10
pm., while the disagreement between the pair started much later.
The magistrate adjourned the case to
November 30, this year.
It would be recalled that another young
lady, Cynthia Osokogu, met her death in the hands of Facebook friends, who
killed her in a hotel Festac area of Lagos.
The matter is still in court.