A musician in Imo State, Uba Obinna Agbaso, popularly known as ‘Ababanna’ is currently cooling off in a police division at Agbala in Owerri North council area of the following his alleged rape of a 12-year old girl.
Ababanna, who allegedly serially raped the underaged girl, was said to have forcibly had carnal knowledge of the girl (names withheld) on more than three occasions before the girl fled home.
The victim is an only daughter and staying with her father, Victor Okereocha, who is separated with her mother.
The man is a vulcanizer struggling to make ends meet and leaves home for work very early in the morning every day in search of his family’s daily bread.
The girl, it was gathered, is left at the mercy of sexual predators when the father leaves the house for work.
Okereocha told our correspondent that he was still at a government medical facility finalising documentations on the matter after a laboratory test of his raped daughter.
An elder in the family, Mr. Godwin Okereocha, however lamented the sad incident saying that the musician who he alleged was notorious for such irresponsible acts took advantage of the proximity of their homes to sneak into his brother’s house to violate his little daughter.
He said: “They all live in the same compound, at Emoha in Owerri North council area, and whenever Victor leaves for work, Ababanna who is a popular musician, would sneak in and waylay my brother’s underaged daughter with threats and intimidation. It did not happen once and it did not happen twice, Ababanna serially raped the poor girl time and again.”
On how the bubble burst, Godwin Okereocha said that the little girl at some point could not endure the torture of dying in silence and so confided in his immediate elder brother who is 14 years old.
“Feeling that their father was just a struggling man and may not be able to do much, the poor girl and his brother conspired and secretly fled home for the safety of the girl. They fled to Mbaise where their mother was living in her father’s house without telling their father their plans.
“After weeks of searching, it was discovered that they had fled to their maternal home. I personally didn’t like the idea of losing my niece and nephews to Mbaise just like that; they should at least tell us why they have to leave home like that. So we made all arrangement to bring back their mother immediately.
“It was when we brought the Victor’s wife and the children back after fulfilling all traditional rights that the wife told us that her daughter was serially raped under the roof of her father, which was why she fled home to Mbaise.
“On hearing this, the family was devastated and the youths of the community were thoroughly enraged and a mass action in protest of the alleged rape ensued.”
According to Godwin Okereocha who said that youths of the community had vowed that Ababanna would not get away with this rape having allegedly gotten away from a similar rape case in the community after he allegedly paid off the family.
“But on this case, the youths marched to his house and was on the verge of unleashing mayhem on him and his properties, when the police intervened, saved Ababanna but arrested and dumped him in police cell,” Okereocha said.
The family of the victim also expressed shock that there was concerted effort by politicians to free Ababanna from the hook as Ababanna was popular and a regular face in major political gatherings in Imo state.
As at the time of talking to Godwin Okereocha, Ababanna had already spent three days in police cell and the matter was about being moved to the Imo state Police headquarters.
When the Police Spokesman, SP Orlando Ikeokwu was contacted to know if the matter had got to the state command headquarters, Ikeokwu said he would check and get back to our correspondent.
As of the time of filing the report, he was yet to get back to our correspondent. His phone rang out without any response from him.