The Yaba Magistrate’s Court on Friday remanded a 20-year-old ex-convict, Azeez Tajudeen, for allegedly raping a six-year-old girl (name withheld) to death in the Ayobo area of Lagos State.
It was gathered in court that Tajudeen lured his victim with biscuits to an uncompleted building where he removed her clothes, and raped her four times with his hands on her mouth until she passed out from pain and suffocation.
According to the police prosecutor, Chekwube Okeh, the defendant, not knowing what to do when he found out that the girl was no longer breathing, left her corpse there naked and fled.
Okeh told the court that the defendant committed the crime on September 9, 2023, around 4 pm, at Moricas Street, in the Ayobo area of Lagos State.
According to the police, the mother of the deceased, on the day of the incident, returned from her hawking business but could not find her daughter. She raised the alarm and people joined her in the search for the child.
It was learnt that someone later reported that the girl was last seen with Tajudeen, who used to come to her house to fix stools for her.
The mother told the police that when Tajudeen was called and questioned, he initially denied knowing the girl’s whereabouts, but after further interrogation, he confessed to having carried her to an uncompleted building after buying her biscuits.
He also said, “I slept with her three to four times and she fainted. I did not know that she would die, so I left her there and ran away.”
He was arrested by the Ayobo police officers whom he led to the uncompleted building where the girl’s corpse was recovered naked with her clothes scattered on the floor.
The apprentice carpenter confessed that he had planned to sleep with the child but did not plan to kill her.
He further stated in court that he was an ex-convict, who got out of custody in August 2023.
According to Okeh, the offence contravenes Section 222 and is punishable under Section 223 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, Nigeria, 2015.
“That you, Azeez Tajudeen, on September 9, 2023, around 4 pm at Ayobo, Lagos State, in the Lagos Magisterial District did unlawfully defile and kill one (name withheld) aged eight years old and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 222 and punishable under Section 223 of the Criminal Law State, 2015.”
The defendant’s plea was however not taken.
The magistrate, Balogun, ordered that Tajudeen be remanded immediately to prison custody and the case file duplicated and sent to the DPP for legal advice.
She adjourned the case till January 22, 2024, for legal advice from the DPP.