A 12-year-old boy has died in Niger State after being raped severally by a man identified as Abubakar.
The boy, identified as Aminu, was kidnapped from his parents’house in March by Abubakar, a tea seller, who held him hostage in his own house and had anal sex with him severally for two weeks until the boy fell sick.
A neighbour who suspected something was wrong in Abubakar’s apartment drew the attention of the police at the Kontagora Division.
The police promptly arrested Abubakar and had the boy admitted at a hospital where he died shortly after from injuries sustained to his anal cavity as a result of the brutalization.
A resident around the area where the incident occurred said that the boy’s parents had been searching for him since March when he went missing.
“A man alerted us two weeks later that he saw Aminu with mai-shai (Abubakar). The suspect initially denied that the boy was in his custody. The boy was later found in his apartment in a critical condition. He looked tired and pale. Abubakar confessed he had sex with him several times.
“The police were called to arrest him and Aminu was rushed to a hospital. He eventually died last week. The parents do not want to talk about the incident for now; they are devastated.”
Abubakar has, however, been arraigned before a Kontagora Chief Magistrate’s Court on two-counts of abduction and unnatural offences, which he pled guilty to.
“The unfortunate thing is that he was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment with a fine of N30,000, which is ridiculous. The punishment generated a lot of outcry.
“But it is not the police’s fault. What the police can do is to appeal the case or file a new charge, now that boy is dead,” he added.
DSP Elkana James, Public Relations Officer of the Niger State Police Command, said that the case has been transferred to the command headquarters in Minna where the suspect would be re-arraigned on a fresh charge of culpable homicide.
“Our legal team is reviewing the sentence. When the suspect was charged to court, the boy was not dead. So, he was charged with abduction and unnatural offences.
“He and the boy, aged 12, lived within the same vicinity. He abducted him for two weeks and abused him during the period.
“Now that the boy is dead, we have a liberty to charge him with culpable homicide. That will be an additional charge.
“He is still in prison, serving the one month’s imprisonment. Once the new charge is filed, he would be reproduced to take his plea,” Elkana said.
