An Ikeja Magistrates’ Court on Tueday ordered that Emmanuel Abdon, Victor Talofari and Leonard Justice, accused of abducting and raping a 16- year-old girl for four days, be remanded in prison, pending legal advice from the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPPs).
When the case was mentioned, Magistrate B.O Osunsanmi refused to take the pleas of the defendants because her court lacks the jurisdiction to entertain the matter.
She ordered that they be remanded at Kirikiri Prisons and adjourned the case until April 8.
The police accused Abdon, 24, a driver, Talofari, 22, student and Justice 22, a stylist, all residents of Ikeja, Lagos, of conspiracy, abduction and defilement.
The Police prosecutor, Insp. Rachael Donny told the court that the defendants committed the offence on Jan. 30 at the Army Cantonment, Ikeja.
He said that the defendants abducted the girl from the custody of her guardian, lodged her in their house and were having sex with her.
Donny said that the girl was abducted when she was sent on errand to Mammy market to buy pepper.
She alleged that the defendants locked the girl in a room and raped her for four days.
The prosecutor said that the defendants released her after four days.
She said the girl’s guardian reported the case to the police and the defendants were arrested.
The offence, she said, contravened the provisions of sections 137, 269 and 411 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Section 137 prescribes life imprisonment for defilement.
