An officer of the Police Mobile Force identified simply as Augustine who assaulted, tied and injured an 8-year-old girl, Amarachi Abakwuru, at their Ketu neighbourhood has since disappeared into thin air, even as the Lagos State Police Command keep mum over the matter.THISDAY learnt that the victim was lured into the suspect’s house about 8pm on Thursday
Barely managing to speak from her parched throat, the victim, who was saved by her sheer grit and brilliance, said she never saw what was coming till it happened.She said.....
“Mopol had sent me to buy bean cake for him earlier on which I did. Later, as I wanted to go into our apartment and sleep, he dragged me into his room. Then I heard my father calling my name and I told him to allow me go answer him.Mopol told me to shut up my mouth and the next thing, he covered my mouth with his hand and tied it with a cloth. He also tied my neck and my hands. He then used a sharp iron and hit me on the head. I started bleeding but I could not shout because he tied my mouth.
When he heard my parents looking and shouting for me, he pushed me under his bed. Later, he locked the door and left me under the bed bleeding. I could hear my parents shouting my name but I couldn’t do anything.
“Later, although I was weak, I heard some people at the window and I heard my mother’s voice there. I used my last strength and dragged my body till one of my legs came out from under the bed. It was when they saw my leg from the window that they now broke the door.I want the government to arrest Mopol. He hurt me. I thought the police was my friend. Why did Mopol do that to me? I thought I would die.”
The victim’s mother, Mrs. Nkiru Abakwuru, said the suspect was their next door neighbour at their residence in Ketu.
“We have always been friendly with him so I cannot explain what pushed him to treat my daughter this way. “In fact, that night, Mopol came back from a trip and we asked him about his car. He told us he had a collision with another vehicle at the toll gate and so he had to park it there.
“While we were still talking, he asked my daughter Amarachi to go buy some bean cake for him. When she came back with some change, he asked her to use it and buy fried yam for herself. She did but she didn’t finish it and gave the rest to me.
“Later about 8pm, she said she wanted to and sleep. So while she went upstairs to sleep, I headed to the kitchen to wash the plates. Few minutes later, my husband came back and asked for Amarachi and I told him she went to sleep.Few seconds later, he told me she wasn’t in the room. I wasn’t alarmed yet. We started searching for her and I remember we asked Mopol three times and he said she didn’t enter his room.At that point, we didn’t know he had already removed her clothes and tied her up and had also broken her skull. We went to the police station about 11pm and one of the officers came to the house with us.
He however refused to break open the door because he said there was a possibility the girl was not in the room. He then went to the window and pried it open. It was then we saw my daughter’s leg under the bed. We broke down the door and rushed her to two hospitals, where they rejected her because of the severity of her head wound.But before then, Mopol fled the house and when I called him, he said he went to smoke. Up till now, he hasn’t come back. His mother even called me today to ask which hospital we were in. I heard the son’s voice in the background and when I asked for her location in Alapere, she switched off the phone.”The victim’s father, Mr. Patrick Abakwuru, who also spoke, called on the police and the state government to come to their aid in terms of treatment for the teenage girl.
According to him, due to the severity of the head wound, the hospital had concluded plans to transfer them to another hospital (name withheld) for better treatment.
When THISDAY visited the hospital where the girl was admitted, she was seen writhing in pains on the bed, with a neck brace to support her neck and plaster to cover her broken skull.
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