A human rights group, Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), has accused the Nigeria Police Force of trying to cover up a Mobile Policeman, Corporal Barau Garba with Service Number: 275601 who raped a 14 year old Maryam Yusuf.
According to a news website Sahara Reporters, the group’s executive director Dr. Ibrahim Zikirullahi, in a statement disclosed to have received credible information that the Corporal abducted Maryam and raped her repeatedly.
Information obtained from Sahara reporters, disclosed that Maryam, who lives with her parents at the Hausa Quarters in Asaba, Delta State, went to Onitsha to buy some items for her father but unfortunately she lost the money for the items she was meant to purchase. It was while frantically searching for the vehicle she boarded in a bid to recover the money that Garba approached her.
Maryam who is in desperate need of help was lured thinking she was safe with a policeman, while Garba took her on his motorcycle to his room at the Police Base where the act was committed. The group added.
Dr. Zikirullahi in the statement further disclosed that hospital tests subsequently showed that Maryam was raped with all brutality, and her vagina had been ruptured as a result of this dastardly act by a supposed officer of the law.
The group noted that despite the gravity of the infraction by Garba, his colleagues at the Okpoko Division of the Nigeria Police in Anambra State have been trying to cover it up.
According to the Human right group, Maryam’s case is just one of many instances in which the Police have been unwilling to act when young girls have been violated. It reasoned that the failure of the Police to move against sex offenders has encouraged rapists across the country to get bolder with their hideous conduct.
