A 61-year-old driver, Peter Ezeala, and a welder, Elochukwu Igwilo, 27, have been arrested for allegedly defiling four siblings in Umudim, in the Nnewi North Local Government Area of Anambra State.
The victims, aged 10, eight, five and 11 months, resided in the same compound with the suspects.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the men took advantage of their mother’s absence to defile them.
The Executive Directors of Davina Care Foundation and Creative Minds Centre for Youth and Community Development, Mrs Rachel Yohanna and Mrs Ugochi Freeman, respectively, said the victims were taken to a health centre where it was confirmed that they were defiled.
Yohanna said the matter was reported at the Central Police Station, Nnewi, on February 18, adding that the suspects were arrested.
She said, “We were alerted by health workers at the Ntasi Centre for Sexual Assault Cases at the Enugu-Ukwu General Hospital and we decided to handle the case.
“The victims’ mother said she came back one day and heard one of their neighbours telling her 10-year-old daughter to report the defilement to her.
The mother interrogated her daughter further and she was told the two suspects had been defiling her four daughters whenever she went out to sell African salad, popularly known as Abacha.
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“Their mother took the first two daughters (10 and eight) to Ntasi centre, where their results came out positive. At that point, the hospital asked her to bring her other two daughters (five and 11 months) for tests and the results were positive.
The 11-month-old girl has a fresh tear at the posterior area of her vagina. The victims’ mother and their uncle were advised to report the matter at the Central Police Station in Nnewi afterwards,” she added.
Yohanna revealed that the victims were on treatment, while the case had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Awka, for further investigation.
The spokesman for the Anambra State Police Command, Ikenga Tochukwu, who confirmed the incident, urged parents and guardians to be vigilant.
Tochukwu, in a release on Monday, said, “Operatives swung into action and arrested the two suspects namely, Peter Ezeala from Mbano, Imo State; and Mr Elochukwu Igwilo, from Ekwusigo LGA, Anambra State.
“Information revealed that the mother of the victims, a trader, always left the children in the care of the suspects whenever she wanted to go for her business.
However, this became an opportunity for the suspects to take advantage of those kids. Meanwhile, the case has been charged to court and the suspects remanded in a correctional centre, as the case was adjourned.”
