A 40-year-old rape suspect has been finally apprehended and is now in the custody of Anambra State Police Command, two years after committing the crime.
The suspect, Anietie Tim was alleged to have raped a 14-year-old girl in October 2022 in Onitsha, and ever since, attempts to apprehend him have proved abortive.
Since the incident happened in 2022, the suspect who has been evading arrest through the help of some military personnel at the Army Barracks Onitsha, where he lives, had on different occasions threatened the mother of his victim, claiming to be untouchable.
It was gathered that a radio presenter resident in Onitsha, Francis Pember, had volunteered to help the victim after he was intimated of the incident.
He had invited the suspect to do some carpentry work when police operatives arrested him and brought him to the Ministry of Women and Social Welfare.
The radio presenter thanked the state government for always fighting for the vulnerable people in the state and stated that he was confident that the ministry would not let the suspect go free.
The mother of the victim who recalled that the incident happened in October, 2022, said after the encounter, they discovered that her daughter was feeling pain and other signs.
“According to my daughter, her friend gave her drugs and she started bleeding
“I later took her to the Federal Medical Centre, Onitsha where she was admitted for two days.
“When she was finally discharged, we found that she lost the baby,” she revealed.
When interrogated, the suspect, who is from Eninan Akwa-ibom, claimed he never knew his victim was underage and went further to say that she was the one that tempted him and he responded because he is a man with blood flowing through his veins.
Mr Tim also explained that before the incident, he was already befriending his 14-year-old victim, who, according to him, was always starved at home.
“When I saw her, she lied to me that she was 18 years old. She came to my house many times and I didn’t touch her.
“That fateful day, she came to my house and told me that her body was doing her somehow.
“I am a man and I have feelings because my body is working.
“So when she made advances at me, I couldn’t hold myself and I had sex with her.
“After the encounter, I gave her the keys to my house and she used to come from time to time, as she said she did not have food in her parent’s house,” he narrated.
When asked about how the victim got pregnant, he confirmed that he did not use protection during the sexual encounter, but noted that it was only once he did so before he traveled.
According to him, he had sex with the victim without protection because he loved her.
On her part, the State Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare, Hon Ify Obinabo, directed that the suspect be handed over to the police as he will be appearing before the Children, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Magistrate court in Awka to answer for his crime.
He warned others who engage in such unwholesome and immoral acts to desist as the state government will fish them out and make them face the full wrath of the law.
“There is no way you will tell me that you are a man and any time advances are made at you, you oblige.
”Just imagine how this man defiled a 14-year-old child.
“We will make sure that he faces the music to also serve as a deterrent to other offenders,” she warned.
