by Anike Jacobs

Ikechukwu Obasi, a 30-year-old graduate of the University of Lagos is currently on the run after raping a 9-year-girl, Nofisat Balogun.

The victim’s mum, Bilikis Balogun who spoke to Punch Newspapers, disclosed that the incident occurred on December 2, 2014 at their 83, Aina Street, Pako Aguda home, in Surulere, Lagos.

Hear her: “He has fled his apartment since the incident. But I just want him to face justice and get punishment for what he did to my daughter.

“I have never thought that the man could do that to my daughter. He was such a friendly person in our compound. All I know about him is that he is a ‘Yahoo-Yahoo guy’ (a description for young men who specialize in internet fraud).

According to Bilikis, she was in the market when her daughter came crying, and told her the story about how their neighbour took advantage of her Nofisat, a quiet and shy girl, whose eyes showed the painful memory of the experience she had gone through, told our correspondent that she did not suspect anything when Ikechukwu came into the room where she was reading in their apartment and gave her a N1,000 note to go and buy food for him.

She said, “I bought the food and took it to him. But because the food vendor did not give me back N850 change, he said I should go back and collect it. When I brought the change back to him, he locked the door.

“He then used a cloth to cover my mouth and I could not shout. He then carried me to the bed and did it. When he finished and I was bleeding, he said I should not tell anybody.”

Later that afternoon, the girl narrated what Ikechukwu did to her to another resident of the compound, who spotted her crying in front of Ikechukwu’s room.

The neighbour told her to go and report the incident to her mother in the market.

But by the time they got back, Ikechukwu had locked his room and fled. He has not been seen since then.

The case was reported at the Aguda Police Division, Surulere, but the police said they had been unable to take any action because the culprit had fled.

However, Ikechukwu’s family had approached Nofisat’s family, pleading to pay monetary compensation to settle the matter.

“How can they tell me they want to pay N40,000 so that I would forget my daughter was raped? All I want is justice for my daughter. They have refused to produce the man,” Nofisat’s mother said.