Suspected cultists in Katsina-Ala Local Government Area of Benue have gang raped a 15-year-old girl.
Sources said that the teenager was abducted on January 5 by the cultists.
The report said that the victim, who went into coma after the rape,
is being treated at the Benue State University Teaching Hospital,
Makurdi.
The victim’s father, Mr. Terlanga Ugba, told newsmen at the hospital
in Makurdi on Monday that his daughter left home at about 11 a.m on
January 5 to buy some tailoring materials for her sewing work but never
returned.
Ugba said that they searched for her in the hospitals, churches and
friends’ houses but did not find her until the following day when he
lodged a formal complaint with the Katsina-Ala Police Station.
He stated that he followed up the development with a special prayer session for her recovery.
He narrated that a church member later called to inform him that she
saw his daughter with a suspected notorious cultist (name withheld).
Ugba said he organised another search party on receiving the phone to
comb all the criminal hideouts in Katsina-Ala until they found the girl
being dragged out from one of the hideouts by the river bank to cover
tracks of the crime.
He said the search party arrested the suspect with the help of some
Okada riders and took him and the girl to the police station.
According to him, he was later asked by the police to take the girl
to the hospital for medical attention while they detained the suspect.
He said that he rushed his daughter to Nguher Clinic, Katsina-Ala, in
a semi-conscious state where she narrated her ordeal to him and the
doctor on call.
However, Ugba said that the vigilance group in the area arrested one
of the suspects (name withheld) and handed him over to the police.
According to the victim, she was abducted by a group of boys as soon as she stepped into their street on the fateful day.
She said that she was blindfolded and taken to an unknown place where they gave her four injections.
She told her father and the doctor that she was not given water or
any food for the two days they kept her there, adding that they forced
her to smoke weeds while they took turns to rape her.
She added that the suspects, three in number, told her that she was
always snubbing them whenever they needed her attention with a threat to
deal with her.
Dr Austin Oko referred the victim to BSUTH upon a medical assessment
which revealed sexual assault on the girl, no bleeding seen while traces
of hard substance was found in her blood.
The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Bashir Makama, confirmed
that the reported, saying that he had ordered the DPO in Katsina-Ala to
transfer the case to the state CID for further investigation.
Makama assured the public of police action, explaining that rape was a capital offence and no police officer could play with it.
He said investigation was on top gear to arrest the fleeing suspects.