by ‘Jola Sotubo

A commercial bus driver in Enugu has had the rape case pending against him adjourned till February 26 2014.

Emeka Ugwudiobi was accused of raping one of his female passengers at gunpoint for 15 hours.

The suspect is said to have committed the offence earlier this year in an uncompleted building around Mayor Market in Enugu.

Leadership reports:

According to the prosecution counsel, Mr Francis Ajagu, the driver plies the New Market-Gariki route and the victim was one of his passengers on the fateful day.

“On getting to Mayor Market, the driver observed that it was only the victim that was left inside the bus.

“He drove the bus to an uncompleted building beside the Mayor Market and started raping the victim,” Ajagu told the court.

He said the victim was raped from 7 p.m. to 10 a.m. without break and that the accused never heeded the pleas of the victim to have pity on her to allow her rest.

Ajagu said it was a passerby, one Mr Chidubem Ezeorah, who ran into the scene and reported the case to the police.

He said that the victim could hardly stand on her feet when the police came to her rescue in the uncompleted building.

However, the counsel to the accused, Mr Peter Obeta, described the accused as a responsible man who has a wife and four children.

He told the court that the accused had been into driving for the past 16 years and that nobody had ever complained that he was a rapist.

Obeta said that there was no way a bus driver would carry a gun inside his bus and the police would not notice and denied that his client had ever seen the victim he was accused of raping.

Justice Dorathy Agishi ordered the accused to be remanded in prison custody while adjourning the case to Feb. 26, 2014 for further hearing.