The Minna Senior Magistrate Court No. 4, sitting at the old Secretariat Complex, has ordered the remand of a butcher in a correctional facility for sexually assaulting a minor.
Zaiyanu Abdullahi, of Tudun Nasira area of Minna, was remanded in a correctional facility by the presiding Senior Magistrate Christy Barau on a three-count charge that concerned the removal of a child from the custody of her parents, sexual intercourse with a child, sexual abuse, and exploitation.
According to the police prosecutor, Inspector Godwin Adamu, the three-count charges contravened sections 15 (2), 26 (2), and 27 (2) of the Niger State Child Rights and Protection Law 2021 (as amended).
On August 16, 2023, one Mohammed Jiya, of Gurara area of Minna, reported at the Niger State Child Right Agency office in Minna that June 8, 2023, Zaiyanu Abdullahi, a butcher in Minna and resident of Tudun Nasira area, took his 13-year-old daughter (name withheld) out of his custody without his consent to his house, where she stayed and cohabited with him in his house for three months.
The prosecutor explained that after a thorough search, the said missing daughter was found to have been living with the accused in his room at the above address.
The police First Information Report (FIR) made available in court and obtained by our reporter revealed that during the police investigation, the victim identified the defendant as the person who took her to his house and was among the persons who repeatedly raped and sexually abused her with his friends.
When the charge was read to him by the senior magistrate, Christy Barau, he pleaded not guilty to the three-count charges, while the police prosecutor, inspector Godwin Adamu, told the court that a police investigation into the matter had just commenced and he requested the remand of the defendant.
While granting the request of the prosecutor, Senior Magistrate Christy Barau then ordered his remand and adjourned the case to September 21, 2023, for further hearing.