The Bayelsa State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps claimed on Saturday that it had commenced investigation into the alleged defilement of two underage sisters by an official serving at the command.
The state NSCDC Commandant, Christiana Abiakam-Omanu, said the command was taking the allegation seriously, adding that it was a negation of the duties of the NSCDC, which include protection of minors from sexual abuse.
The unnamed NSCDC official was attached to an oil surveillance houseboat operating in the creeks of Nembe Local Government Area of the state.
He was said to have lured the two victims, age 12 and 10, at different periods to his apartment in the Bassambiri-Nembe community where he allegedly had sex with them.
The alleged escapades of the official was said to have been discovered on Tuesday. The mother of the victims confirmed the incident and said that it was causing the two sisters ‘psychological trauma.’
Abiakam-Omanu said the case was first reported to the Nembe Police Division where the incident took place. According to her, the command is handling the probe with the police in addition to an internal investigation by the NSCDC disciplinary committee.
She said the official alleged to have committed the crime would be punished “in accordance with NSCDC rules and will also be made to face the law, if found culpable.”
Abiakam-Omanu further said the command had zero-tolerance for indiscipline among personnel, promising that findings of the investigation would be made public.
She said, “The corps is on top of the matter and if the information is found to be correct about the alleged crime. The suspect will face sanctions and the law will take its course. The report is being handled appropriately with utmost professionalism and if it is true, disciplinary measures will be meted out and the outcome will be seen shortly. It is part of our mandate to protect children, and we cannot work against that.”
In another development, an Ado Ekiti Chief Magistrates’ Court on Friday ordered the remand of three male secondary school teachers in Ekiti State in police custody over alleged rape of their pupils.
The Chief Magistrate, Mr Adesoji Adegboye, ordered that the three defendants in the three separate cases be kept in police custody pending issuance of legal advice from Directorate of Public Prosecutions.
The defendants in the three cases are 44-year-old Adeyanju Olaitan, a teacher at Osi Community High School, Osi-Ekiti, 40-year-old Gbenga Ajibola and 50-year-old Olaofe Ayodele – both of All Soul Grammar School in Ado-Ekiti.
The Chairman, Ekiti State Teaching Service Commission, Babatunde Abegunde, on Friday announced the dismissal of the three teachers.
A police prosecutor, Inspector Oriyomi Akinwale, told the court that Olaitan committed the offence sometime in December 2019 in Osi-Ekiti.
Akinwale alleged that the defendant, “who was a teacher at Osi Community High School in Osi-Ekiti, engaged one Senior Secondary School 3 student to agree and marry him, to the detriment of her academic and psychological wellbeing.”
In the two other cases, a police prosecutor, Inspector Johnson Okunade, said the defendants were standing trial for alleged rape.
Okunade, who alleged that Ajibola committed the offence sometime in December 2019 in Ado-Ekiti, told the court that the defendant raped his student, a 17-year-old girl.
The prosecutor also told the court that the third defendant, Ayodele, allegedly raped his 15-year-old student sometime in December 2019 in Ado-Ekiti.
The police said the offence contravened sections 2 (2) and 6 (1) of the Ekiti State Gender Based Violence (Prohibition) Law 2019.
The court did not take the pleas of the three defendants and adjourned the cases till March 2, 2020.