A police inspector attached to Mkpat Enin Police Division in the Mkpat Enin Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State has allegedly raped a 15-year old girl, Udo, at gunpoint.
Udo, a Senior Secondary School one pupil of Community Secondary School, Iyadiong, Mkpat Enin, said on Tuesday that she was returning from church on Thursday when a police team accosted her.
She explained that the inspector raised the gun, cocked it and pointed it at her, saying if she resisted, he would shoot her.
Udo said the inspector led her away from other members of the team to a dark area along the road.
The pupil added that the policeman fondled her breasts, and said, “Small you, possess this type of breasts!”
She said the policeman ordered her to undress with his gun pointing at her.
She said, “After he had forced me to remove my clothes, he ordered me to lie down and open my legs and raped me.
“As he was raping me, he warned me not to cry and threatened to shoot me if I opened my mouth.
“Blood was oozing from my private parts, but the policemen dragged me into the vehicle and drove to the station, where he detained me from Thursday till Saturday.
“It was my uncle, Dr Ime Stephen, that came from Abuja and bailed me with N10,000.”
Udo told PUNCH Metro that her mother left her dad when she was a toddler, adding that her dad had been paralysed since the day he fell from a palm tree. She said she and her dad depended on her uncle’s benevolence.
Stephen, her uncle, who said the culprit was also a police prosecutor, added that he could not believe his eyes when the girl pointed at the cop as the one who raped her from among the policemen who were on duty that time.
He said, “We call for his dismissal from the force so that he can be prosecuted accordingly.”
Meanwhile, an artisan, Mr. Ndifreke Ibuotenang, 28, claimed that he was also brutalised on Thursday by the same group of policemen.
Ibuotenang said he was returning from where he went to drink palm wine around 9pm, when the same police team accosted him and beat him to a pulp.
Ibuotenang’s two eyes had been seriously affected.
He said he was released after the payment of N10,000 bail.
The state Police Commissioner, Mr. Murtala Mani, said the police had already commenced investigation into the two cases.
Mani explained that all the policemen that were on patrol from the station at the time were in detention at the police headquarters in the state.
He explained that the fact that a police officer was a prosecutor did not mean that he could not be assigned to other duties.
He said, “We have already started investigation into the matter. We have detained all the policemen involved.
“I interviewed the victims close to three hours yesterday (Monday). If the culprits are found wanting, they would be dismissed and prosecuted.”