Controversy is currently trailing an ongoing investigation of the alleged rape of a minor by a medical doctor in Lagos, following an accusation that the Police and an aide to the Lagos State Governor were trying to shield the suspect.
It would be recalled that the suspect (names withheld) was arrested by detectives of the Gender Unit of the Lagos State Police Command, in March 2022 for allegedly abusing his wife’s niece severally.
It was gathered that the suspect’s wife, who is an aunt to the victim, took her in after her father’s demise.
Narrating her ordeal in her aunt’s home, the victim, said: “My aunt’s husband started by introducing me to pornography. He later taught me how to perform oral sex. I started performing oral sex on him days before he started penetrating me. The day he deflowered me, he made me swear to an oath never to tell anyone.”
She further alleged that the suspect had been having both oral and penetrative sex with her, and ejaculated inside her mouth daily, for 19 months before the lid blew open.
It was learnt that the suspect was detained for 12 days in police custody before he was granted bail.
Since then, efforts to charge the case to court were allegedly scuttled by delay on the part of the Police, apparently due to his status in society.
Irked by the delay, human rights lawyer and leader of the Radical Agenda Movement in the Nigeria Bar Association, Mr Adeshina Ogunlana, called on the Lagos State Government and Police authorities to intervene in the matter, to render justice to the victim.
Addressing journalists at a press conference held alongside members of some Civil Society Organisations, he said: “It is evident that the Police and Gender Unit have treated and continue to treat this case with a kid’s glove.
“It is puzzling that a case of this magnitude, which has been reported since March 19, 2022, is yet to be charged to court even with a plethora of evidence before these agencies including a confessional statement by the alleged offender.”
However, when contacted to know why the case has been stalled for over six months, spokesman for the Lagos State Police Command, SP Benjamin Hudenyin, said the case was sent to the Legal Unit of the command for legal advice, adding that it is still under investigation.