A Chief Magistrate’s Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has remanded one Wigoh Enuolara, father of a 12-year-old rape survivor at the Port Harcourt Custodial Centre for allegedly collecting N800,000 from a 39-year-old man, Collins Azunna, who was accused of defiling his daughter.
Azunna was also remanded by the court.
Earlier, the defence lawyer, Edwin Woka, informed the court that the father of the girl collected N800,000 from the suspect’s family.
He explained that Azunna was charged to court because he refused to be extorted further by the family of the 12-year-old.
Counsel for the complainant, E.B. Igwe, told the court that though his client (Enuolara) initially did not agree to collect the said sum, he succumbed when a female police officer investigating the matter at the Eleme Police Division, identified as Rita, pleaded with him to collect the money in order to save the life of his child.
The Chief Magistrate, F.N. Amanze, after going through the case file, ordered that Azunna and the father of the 12-year-old girl, Enuolara, be remanded in the Port Harcourt Custodial Centre and adjourned the matter till January 13, 2022, for continuation and arraignment of both suspects.
In another development, a 32-year-old man, Promise Cletus, has been remanded in the Port Harcourt Custodial Centre over charges bordering on trafficking of a 15-month-old child.
The charge read, “That you, Promise Cletus, on December 1, 2021, at Iwofe, in the Port Harcourt Magisterial District, did take away King David Saroz, one year and three months old from the custody of his mother, Mary Victor, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 27(2) (b) (c) of the Child’s Right Act Cap. 50 Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2003.”
The defendant pleaded not guilty to the charge as the chief magistrate remanded him.
The case was adjourned till January 21, 2022, for hearing.
