A Chief Magistrate Court in Lokoja yesterday ordered that four youths, including a computer engineer, be remanded in prison custody for allegedly gang-raping a female secondary school student (names withheld), recording the incident on video and posting the pictures on the internet.
Chief Magistrate Alhassan Hussaini, who gave the order when the accused persons were arraigned in court said they should be remanded at the Federal Prisons, Ankpa.
According to the First Information Report, the prosecuting police officer, Mr C.S. Ayabotu, said the offence, committed on February 10, was reported by the raped student at the Divisional Police Headquarters, Ankpa on February 14.
The complainant had reported that she was returning from an errand for her mother when three of the accused, Bala Musa, Uchenna Chiaghanam and Faruk Umar criminally conspired, accosted her and forcefully dragged her into a nearby bush and raped her.
The prosecution said that the accused, whose ages ranged between 18 to 21, seized her handset (Nokia 200 Asha), subjected her to beating, slapped her with a ring suspected to be charmed after which she fell and became unconscious.
They were also alleged to have jointly and forcefully had sex with her one after the other, recorded the sex scenes and posted the video on the internet with the assistance of the computer engineer and the fourth accused, Suleiman Abdullahi.
The Peoples Daily reports that they were charged with criminal conspiracy, criminal force, theft and rape contrary to sections 97, 265, 287 and 282 of the Penal Code law.
The prosecuting police officer, Ayabotu however, told the court that investigation into the case was on-going and applied for another date to enable the police complete their investigation.
In his ruling, Alhassan Hussaini ordered that the accused be remanded in prison custody at Ankpa as police investigations were on-going.
Hussaini transferred the case the Chief Magistrate court Ankpa, the origin of the incident for the convenience of all parties and in exercise of the powers conferred on the court by section 147 of the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC).
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