Fred Ezeh, Abuja
Operatives of the National Agency for the Prohibition Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) have arrested 41-year-old Festus, an engineer, for alleged rape of five school pupils of the same secondary school at different occasions.
Preliminary findings revealed that the suspect, who hails from Ondo State, is married with two children and lives in Bwari Area Council of Abuja. His wife and children live in Ondo State. He was apprehended by men of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and, thereafter, referred to NAPTIP for further investigations and prosecution.
A statement released in Abuja, yesterday, by NAPTIP spokesperson, Stella Nezan, indicated that the victims between 12 and 15 years old.
In a related development, a 51-year-old bursar of Government Secondary School, Dangara, Abaji- Abuja, was also arrested by NAPTIP officials for allegedly drugging, raping and impregnating a 15-year-old student.
The suspect, Luke Gabriel Ekundayo, from Ilorin, Kwara State, was the victim’s guardian in school, and she spent short holidays in his house.
The victim, an SS3 student, took ill in Ekundayo’s house, and upon taking some drugs administered to her by the suspect, she passed out. On waking up, she saw bloodstains and said she felt uneasy, but did not suspect that the bursar, whom her grandmother handed her over to, for protection, could do anything sinister to her.
The victim, an orphan, who was on scholarship, was threatened by the suspect into having sex with him continuously or he would tell her sponsors to stop paying her school fees. The rape continued until the victim got pregnant.
