POLICE ARREST THREE FOR GANG RAPING 17 YEAR OLD GIRL IN EBONYI

Reporter: AMECHI ODO

Police have arrested three suspected cultists in connection with an alleged gang rape of a seventeen year old girl at a Hotel in Okposi in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

Parading the suspects at Police Command Headquarters Abakaliki, the Police Public Relations Officer in the State, Mrs. Loveth Odah, explained that efforts were on to arrest other three fleeing suspects involved in the crime.

In all, six suspects were said to have participated in the alleged gang rape of the seventeen year old girl who is a school dropout and works at a Bar in Okposi in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

Those already in police net gave their names as Uchenna Okoronkwo who is the ring leader and also known as Smart; Philemon Akuma also known as Kosoko; and a twenty-eight year old mother of four, Nnenwaogo Ogbonna also known as Lady Zanga.

Narrating her ordeal, the seventeen year old girl claimed that Lady Zanga lured her to a hotel where she was blindfolded and raped repeatedly by the cultists for rejecting their advances.

‘’So when i got there, they told Zanga to take me to the room so they ordered me to remove my clothes which i did because Zanga threatened that if i don’t do that that she would shoot me. So I removed my clothes before she tied my eyes and they came inside, they were four that had sex with me,’’ the victim narrated.

Lady Zanga, who identified herself as the Coordinator of the women wing of the cult group admitted she lured the girl to the Hotel because her members threatened to kill her children if she failed.

‘’Even my self tried to prevent it but some of the men threatened the lives of my children because they know my house very well,’’ she claimed.

The ring leader, Uchenna Okoronkwo, who claimed to be a graduate of Political Science, pointed out that they gang raped the girl as punishment for refusing to serve them drinks at the Bar where she was working.

‘’When I came in, I now asked her why did she refuse to come and serve us and she started lamenting and I now gave her a slap, out of vexation, I left there but some of the men said they should go and treat her f**k up. So we went there, at a time the Manger of the Hotel begins to have issues with us and I left,’’ Okoronkwo said.

Another suspect, Kosoko, who is a father of six, said he was in his farm when he was invited to the hotel and denied penetrating the girl.

‘’Some people were coming out, people like Shawo, Chyboy and Uk, they were coming out and I asked what is going on and they said everything is over that she was insulting them,’’ he claimed.

Meanwhile, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in the state, Mrs. Loveth Odah, said the suspects would be arraigned as investigations had been concluded.

‘’At the end of prosecution if they are found guilty, they would be jailed but it was a terrible experience for that seventeen year old girl,’’ the PPRO remarked.

Mrs. Oda said the Command would do everything possible to rid Okposi Communuof cultists and arrest the fleeing suspects.