A 13-year-old girl (names withheld) was allegedly abducted and defiled by a man identified as Prince in the Ogbogoro community in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State.
It was gathered that the suspect, popularly known as Don P, defiled the girl for two days after she was abducted in a lonely area and took her to his house on Monday evening.
The mother of the assaulted teenager, who gave her name as Ify, said she sent her daughter on an errand when the incident happened.
The distraught woman stated, “I sent my 13-year-old daughter to go and buy charcoal and leaf for me on Monday around 5pm. But I waited till 8pm I didn’t see her. So, I became worried.
“So, I, my son and my husband’s brother started looking for her. I went to the place where they were selling leaves and charcoal and was told they had not seen my daughter.
“We continued searching for her street-to-street till Wednesday morning around 12pm when we saw our daughter running towards us and holding my son. We immediately asked her where she had been and why she was running. She said one man was pursuing her.
“We asked her to take us to where the man named Prince is staying around what they call the White House area in Ogbogoro.
“We saw the brother and he said he was the one who took and held our daughter for two days while she was on an errand.
“I checked my daughter as a mother and she has been touched. I’m calling on the government and police to arrest this man to pay for what he did to my daughter.”
Meanwhile, a rights group, the Centre for Basic Rights Protection And Accountability Campaign, said the parents of the teenage girl contacted them three days after the incident, saying the matter had been reported to the Ozuoba Police Division.
The National Coordinator of the group, Prince Wiro, said, “The police should ensure the immediate arrest of the suspect for him to be held accountable for his alleged crime.
“We also express worry about the safety of young girls in Ogbogoro as the incident seems to be a recurring one considering the fact that a similar incident happened on February 15, 2024, in the same Ogbogoro where a 42-year-old man and two of his gang members abducted and took a 12-year-old girl to an uncompleted building where she was defiled for days.
“The police must ensure that such incidents do not become a norm in that area.”
When contacted, the spokesperson for the state Police Command, Grace Iringe-Koko, said she would find out and get back to our correspondent.
She had yet to revert as of the time of filing this report.