The Rivers State Police command announced at the weekend the arrest of a 25-year-old man simply called Prince for allegedly abducting and defiling a 13-year-old girl in Ogbogoro, Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state.
The suspect, also known as Don P, was alleged to have abducted the 13-year-old girl for two days and repeatedly defiled her.
According to the mother of the victim, who gave her name simply as Ify to protect her privacy, she sent her daughter on an errand on Monday, March 18, 2024, before her sudden disappearance.
“I told my 13-year-old girl to go buy charcoal and vegetables for me last Monday at about 5 pm. Till 8 p.m., I did not see my child, so I became worried that she was yet to come back from the errand I sent her.
“Me and my husband’s brother started looking for her. I went to the place where they sell vegetables and charcoal and was told they had not seen my daughter.
“As I and my son continued searching for her street to street, on Wednesday afternoon, at about 12 p.m., we saw our daughter running, and she held my son immediately when she saw him. We asked her where she had been and why she was running, and she said one brother was pursuing her.
“We ask her to take us to the place where the brother is staying; she said the brother’s name is Prince; he stays around the White House area in Ogbogoro.
“We saw the brother, and he said he was the one who took and held our daughter for two days while she was on an errand. I checked on my daughter as a mother, and she has been deflowered.”.
Confirming the incident, the Police Public Relations Officer, Grace Iringe-Koko, said, “Yes, I can confirm the arrest of the suspect by the Ozuoba Police Division.
She said that the suspect would be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) for further and discreet investigation.”
Reacting to the incident, the National Coordinator of the Centre for Basic Rights Protection and Accountability Campaign, Prince Wiro, disclosed that the parents of the teenage girl contacted him three days after the minor regained freedom from her abductor, and the matter had been reported to the Ozuoba Police Division.
The rights advocate expressed concern over the safety of young girls in that area of Ogbogoro due to the seeming reoccurrence of such incidences and tasked the police with ensuring the perpetrators of the heinous crime were held accountable.
The incident comes barely one month after a twelve-year-old girl was abducted in the same Ogbogoro area and taken to an uncompleted building, where she was repeatedly defiled by a 42-year-old man and his cronies for two days. The man is presently standing trial in Rivers State Family Court.
The suspect will be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, SCIID, for further and discreet investigation.”
