Guard arrested for raping pupil on school premises

Apapa Magistrate Court

The police have arrested a security guard of a public school in Lagos, Adeniyi Primary School, Itire, for allegedly raping an eight-year-old pupil.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the 40-year-old suspect, Friday Oshoba, aka Mopol, committed the alleged crime while the primary 2 pupil, Mercy (pseudonym), was waiting for her sister to pick her up after the school closed around 2pm.

Oshoba was said to have persuaded her to follow him to a deserted spot within the school and removed her underwear. He reportedly raped her afterwards.

It was gathered that a class five pupil, identified only as Bukola, who was sent on an errand by a schoolteacher, caught the guard in the act and reported to the teacher.

Our correspondent learnt that Mercy, on getting home, recounted the incident to her parents. An uncle of the girl followed her to the school the following day and reported the matter to the head teacher.

The head teacher was said to have invited policemen from the Itire division, leading to Oshoba's arrest.

Mercy, in her statements to the police, said, "I was in the school on May 11 at about 2pm when Mopol (Oshoba) called me to a place on the school premises. He removed my underwear and put his thing (manhood) inside my bum-bum. Bukola, who is in primary five, saw us and reported to her teacher. I also told my daddy when I got home."

The suspect, an indigene of Ekpoma, Edo State, denied raping the girl, saying he did not know her name. Oshoba was, however, silent in his statement on whether he took Mercy to any spot as alleged.

He said, "The girl is one of our pupils in Adeniyi Primary School.

"I did not know her name, but I know she is in Primary two. I did not do anything with her. I was married, but my wife left me and I don't have any child."

However, a social worker at the Mirabel Centre, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, where medical examinations were carried out on the victim, said Mercy had bruises in her private parts.

The worker, who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity, said, "The result of the test conducted on the girl shows that she had bruises and fresh lacerations on her hymen. These suggest that the suspect forcefully penetrated her private parts as she claimed."

Oshoba was subsequently brought before an Apapa Magistrate's Court by a police prosecutor, Francisca Job, on one count of rape.

The charge read, "That you, Friday Oshoba, on May 11, 2016, at about 2pm, at Adeniyi Primary School, Itire, Lagos State, in the Apapa Magisterial District, did defile an eight-year-old girl... thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011."

The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge. The presiding magistrate, Mrs. A.O. Adegbite, admitted him to bail in the sum of N200,000 with two sureties in like sum.

The case was adjourned till July 27, 2016.