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When a 14-year-old girl was declared missing recently, 43-year-old Olaniyi Lawal joined the girl’s parents in looking for her. They were next door neighbours. They did not know that Lawal actually kept the girl inside his room and was having uninterrupted sex with her.
The incident happened at Suberu Oje Avenue in Alagbado, Lagos where they resided.
The girl’s parents were said to have suffered serious trauma when she disappeared as they thought she had been kidnapped. They reported to the police.
The neighbours, including Mr Lawal, and the police formed search parties to look for the missing girl.
It was gathered that Lawal later released the girl and she returned home to her parents. She was queried and she told them she was with Mr Lawal.
She said she was comfortable with him even though she knew her parents were looking for her. She also confessed they had sex. The angry parents then reported the matter back to the police and Mr Lawal was arrested for abduction and rape.
He denied abducting the victim and claimed that he did not rape her as alleged by her parents.
However, the police, finding him culpable because of the girl’s age, charged him before Ogba Magistrates court in Lagos.
The prosecutor, Inspector Donny Raphael, told the court that Lawal abducted the victim, kept her inside his room and defiled her.
The Presiding Magistrate, Mrs. B.O. Osunsanmi, ordered that Lawal be remanded in prison custody. She directed the prosecutor to send the file to DPP for advice and then adjourned till September 9, 2018.