A 10-year-old girl, Esther Friday, was reportedly raped to death by a 27-year-old farmer, Isreal Ikumuyi, in Igbotako in Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo State.

The incident happened when the young girl was lured into the room by the farmer who promised to give the little girl some amount of money.

The farmer who confessed to the crime said he never wanted to kill the girl saying his intention was to rape her but not suffocated her to death, while he covered her mouth with a cloth to muffle her cries for help.

Narrating how the girl died in his room, Ikumuyi explained that he was in the kitchen when the young Esther demanded money from him.

He, however, said he left the kitchen to his room with Esther and gave her N100 and slept with her after giving her the money.

He said “initially I don’t mean to rape her, but when she slept with me on the bed. I felt aroused and decided to quickly have sexual intercourse with her.

“I did not force her to have sex with me. We were together on the bed, but I have trouble penetrating her despite all my efforts and I had to cover her mouth with a cloth so that she could not raise alarm.”

She was crying, but nobody could hear or come for her help as I have covered her mouth with cloth and she suffocated to death in the process. She died when I was having sex with her.”

He said he became afraid after he noticed that the girl has died and decided to lock her in the room while her parents were looking for the young girl but said the neighbours found the dead body of the girl on his bed.

Ikumuyi who was dragged to the Magistrate Court in Oke Eda in Akure said he never intended to rape the girl to death but mistakenly suffocated her to death while raping her.

The Prosecutor, Inspector Uloh Goodluck, while presenting the facts of the case before the court said that the accused person killed Esther, by raping her to death.

He said that the offence committed by the accused person contravened sections 316, 319(1) of the Criminal Code Cap 37, Vol. 1 Laws of the Ondo State of Nigeria 2006.

Goodluck prayed the court to remand the accused person in prison custody pending the outcome of the legal advice from the Department of Public Prosecution

He claimed that Ikumuyi lured the victim into his room with the promise of giving her N100 and had his way with her while the community people looked for her.

The plea of the accused person was not taken as he was not represented by any lawyer in the court.

The Presiding Judge, Magistrate N. T. Aladejana subsequently remanded the accused person in Owo Correctional Centre pending the outcome of DPP advice while the case was adjourned till May 3, 2021, for mention. (Nigerian Tribune)

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