Corps member allegedly rapes schoolgirl in Katsina

• Five undergraduates re-arraigned in alleged UNILAG gang-rape

A corps member serving with the Government Girls Secondary School (GGSS), Katsina, Katsina State, has allegedly raped one of the students of the school. The student, a teenager in JSS 1, was allegedly raped by the corps member at the accommodation provided for serving corps member in the school.

The school, an all-girls institution, formerly known as Women Teachers College (WTC), is located in the heart of the state capital. It was learnt that the girl had visited the Corper’s Lodge.

Sources at the school said authorities of the institution and the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) met yesterday at the principal’s office where the corps member was invited for questioning. Spokesman for the NYSC in the state, Mr. Alex Obemeata, was yet to respond to inquiry made on the issue as at time of this report.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on Monday re-arraigned for the third time four undergraduates of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) and an undergraduate of Babcock University for allegedly gang-raping a 17-year-old undergraduate of UNILAG.

The students were re-arraigned before an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court.The defendants are – Moboluwaji Omowole, Chuka Chukwu and Peace Nwakanma, all aged 19, James Aguedu and Josephine Osemeka, both aged 20. They were initially arraigned on February 26, 2019, and pleaded not guilty to a three-count charge of child defilement and permitting defilement of a child in a premises and procuration.

The undergraduates were re-arraigned on June 27, 2019, on fresh five-count charge of defilement of a child, permitting defilement of a child, procuration and sexual assault. Yesterday, they were re-arraigned on an amended six-count charge of defilement of a child, permitting defilement of a child, procuration and sexual assault.

The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty.Following their re-arraignment, the alleged victim (name withheld) was cross-examined by Ben Edechime, counsel to Osemeka. It would be recalled that the complainant (alleged victim) was lured sometime in January 2017 by Nwakanma who was her roommate to High-Rise, a staff quarters hostel in UNILAG. She said she was gang-raped at High Rise by eight male students and sexually assaulted by Osemeka. She alleged that the gang-rape and sexual assault at High Rise was video-taped and that she was blackmailed with the video and further gang-raped on some other occasions by the defendants and their accomplices who are now at large.