By Ajuma Edwina Ameh
A 27-year-old farmer, Isreal Ikumuyi, who muffled the voice of a 10-year-old girl before raping her to death, is to spend the next 52 days behind bars.
The self-confessed rapist will remain in prison pending trial, an Akure Magistrates’ Court ruled on Friday.
Magistrate N.T. Aladejana ordered that the accused should be imprisoned at Owo Correctional facility pending advice from the State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and adjourned the case until May 3, 2021 for mention.
The primary school pupil, Esther Friday, had suffocated to death when Ikumuyi stuffed her mouth with cloth to muffle her cries for help.
Esther was lured into the room by the suspect who promised to give her money following persistent soliciting.
The accused said: “She came to meet me in my kitchen asking me for money, but I told her the money I have is to cook soup. After some time, she came back to meet me but this time she followed me from the kitchen to the bedroom still begging me for money. l later gave her N100 and slept with her in the room.
“Initially I didn’t mean to rape her, but when she slept with me on the bed. I felt aroused and decided to quickly have sexual intercourse with her. I did not force her to have sex with me. We were together on the bed, I had trouble penetrating her despite all my efforts and I had to cover her mouth with a cloth so that she would not raise alarm.
“She was crying, but nobody could hear or come for her help as I covered her mouth with cloth and she suffocated to death in the process. She died when I was having sex with her,” he confessed.
The suspect was beaten black and blue and almost lynched when the lifeless body of the girl was found on his bed by neighbours of Esther’s parents during a search for her.
Prosecutor Uloh Goodluck said while presenting the facts of the case before the court that the accused killed Esther by raping her.
The offences contravened Sections 316 and 319 (1) of the Criminal Code, Laws of the Ondo State 2006.
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