16-year-old girl raped by three men in Akwa Ibom

 

One of the suspects has been arrested by the police.

 

The police in Akwa Ibom State have arrested a man said to be part of a three-man gang that raped a 16-year-old girl.

 

The gang, said to have been armed with a gun, allegedly ambushed their victim around 7 p.m. on February 18 on a road in Oron Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

 

She was blindfolded, taken to an uncompleted building, and raped by the three men who thereafter threatened to kill her and the mother if the case was reported to the police, the victim’s uncle, Prince Robinson, told PREMIUM TIMES, Friday.

 

The victim was returning from evening classes when the incident occurred.

 

A man, who rescued the victim when she escaped from the gang, was able to identify the suspect and one of the two other members of the gang who are at large.

 

The suspect, identified simply as Kufre, was later arrested and detained at a local police station in Oron before he was transferred to the police headquarters in Uyo.

 

The victim, her rescuer, and the suspect were waiting in one of the offices at the State Criminal Investigative Department when a PREMIUM TIMES reporter visited the police headquarters on Friday.

 

The suspect, a dark-complexioned lanky man in his late 20s, was handcuffed.

 

An orange coloured pant, sanitary pad, and a boxer-shorts were among the items handed over by a police detective from Oron to the new investigating police officer (IPO) at the police headquarters.

 

The items were recovered from the suspect’s house, said the detective from the Oron police station.

 

A medical report, indicating that the victim had been raped, was also presented to the new IPO.

 

The police spokesperson in Akwa Ibom State, Odiko MacDon, told PREMIUM TIMES he was not aware of the case, when the paper contacted him.