Rape victim identifies neighbour among her kidnappers

A housewife has identified her neighbour among kidnappers who abducted  and raped her severally in Guggu Village of Toro Local Government Area of Bauchi State.

She identified the suspect when the Bauchi State Ministry of Justice arraigned one Rabo Muhammadu of Guggu Village in Nabordo District of the LGA before Justice Aliyu Baba Usman of State High Court IV over alleged kidnapping and rape of a married woman.

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The Deputy Director of Litigation, Sabiu A Gumba, told the court that the offence of kidnapping is contrary to Section 3 (1) and punishable under Section 3 of the kidnapping  and Section 10 of theft of cattle and Rape Special Provision Law 2017.

In their separate statements before police investigators which was filed in the court by the state counsels, husband of the kidnapped woman, Yusuf Lawan, said three men armed with guns and other weapons covered their faces with veils and demanded N1 million from him which he didn’t have  and they kidnapped his wife and took her to unknown destination. They gave 09073602385 for contact and negotiation. He said the ransom was later reduced to N500,000.

Yusuf said in the process of collecting the money one of the accused was arrested and the rest ran away, and I know one of the kidnappers is our neighbour,” he added.

The housewife, in her statement, said she had four girls and when she was kidnapped she was taken to Yuga forest where all the three kidnappers raped her severally.

She also said she identified one of the kidnappers who was their neighbour.

Daily Trust gathered that when the kidnappers called Yusuf to take the N500,000 to them, policemen and vigilantes  followed him.

“Two of the kidnappers stayed with the kidnapped victims and one of them, Rabo, came out with his gun to collect the money and when he understood that he was surrounded by police and vigilantes, he fired a shot but we shot him and he fell. The remaining two run away and we took him to the police station.

When the case was mentioned yesterday, the accused pleaded not guilty to all the two count charges and the presiding judge, Justice Aliyu Baba Usman, adjourned the case to  March 8, 2021 for trial.