- Older suspect married with two children
- They’ve been cursed by their own mother – Neighbours
Tongues have continued to wag among residents of Aina Street in the Shogunle, Oshodi area of Lagos State over what could have come upon two brothers, who recently allegedly raped two children of their neighbours.
While many have contended that the abominable act of raping minors allegedly perpetrated by the two siblings, Charles and Daniel Udom, could have been the result of a curse or spell cast on them by their own mother, others argued that what they had done stemmed from no other thing than indiscipline.
Other neighbours living in the same house with the suspects at number 16, Aina Street, Shogunle, now keep them and other members of their family at arm’s length, warning their children not to go even a foot near their apartment. Everybody in the neighbourhood now view every of their moves with great suspicion.
The case of Charles, the elder of the two brothers, has been more baffling to the residents of the area. They have yet to come to terms with why the 27-year-old married father of two would contemplate raping a 10-year-old girl! He allegedly defiled the minor, simply identified as Bukola, a daughter of his co-tenant.
As you can see, I’m at my business place. This is all I know. All I do daily is to go to the market to buy banana to make plantains chips. I am not concerned about whatever befalls them
A few days after Charles carried out his randy mission, his younger brother, Daniel, allegedly toed his elder brother’s seedy path by also pouncing on a 13-year-old daughter of another neighbour of theirs, named Mercy, raping her in broad daylight, when most occupants of the house had gone to their various places of work.
Following complaints made to the police, security operatives launched a manhunt for the two randy brothers and eventually arrested them.
The two are currently cooling their heels in police detention in Lagos for an offence bearing on the rape of two minors at different times within their neighbourhood.
According to a source, Charles forcibly had a carnal knowledge of the 10-year-old girl in the one-room apartment he lives with his family.
Charles, it was learnt, had carried out the illegal act under the cover of darkness. Having observed that many people were not in the house at the particular night, Charles had allegedly asked the little girl to bring a bottle of soft drink to him in his room. And while the girl was trying to deliver the bottle of drink to him, he grabbed her, pulled her into his room and raped her!
His younger brother, Daniel, on his part, allegedly used money as a bait to lure the minor, Mercy, into his room one afternoon, when virtually everybody in the house had gone to work. He also succeeded in raping the 13-year-old girl.
A resident of the area, Johnson Tema, told our correspondent that the two siblings appeared to have been suffering from a curse allegedly placed on them by their mother.
Tema, who also recounted how Charles and Daniel ran into trouble, said, “Both of them are suffering from a curse placed upon them by their mother. If you see both of them in the house, you will understand what I am saying. They don’t have a particular work they do, except roaming about the streets. In most cases, they will fight their mother after stealing the poor woman’s money. If they don’t fight their mother, you will see them fighting tenants in the house. I believe they are not doing it for the first time. It was God that exposed them. Charles, the elder brother already has a wife and two children and you wonder what led him to that.
“On this issue that led to their arrest, the little girl that was raped by Charles told her mother about what he did to her and they confronted him. At first he denied, but when they involved the police, he pleaded with the mother of the child and promised to do whatever they asked him to do. It was in the course of that that another girl in the house told her mother that Daniel also did the same to her in their room.”
Another resident, who simply identified herself as Mary, said, “These boys need to be dealt with for their atrocities. They both raped two girls in the one-room apartment of their parents. I learnt that the area boys in the area were threatening to beat them up, if not for the police that intervened. Moreover, I learnt that the family of the boys are making moves to ensure that the case is killed. So, I will like you people to help to expose it so that those girls will not just suffer in vain.”
Meanwhile, the mother of the suspects, who preferred to be identified as Mama Emma, said she would not want to be disturbed over the matter as she had nothing to do with them.
“As you can see, I’m at my business place. This is all I know. All I do daily is to go to the market to buy banana to make plantains chips. I am not concerned about whatever befalls them. Their father has gone to them in the police station. If you can come back, you will talk to him,” she said.
Surprisingly, Charles’ wife, who identified herself as Iya Ebby, said her husband was wrongly accused of committing the alleged offence.
She said nobody could come forward to claim to have witnessed her husband raping the minor.
Iya Ebby also decried the attitude of the police, accusing them of maltreating her husband and his younger brother in their cell.
“It was only an allegation. Do they have eye witness against him? The most annoying thing was the police officers’ behaviour at Ikeja. When we got there, they didn’t allow us to give food to my husband and his brother. Do they want them to die because they were accused of an offence? There was a particular fat woman there, who was acting as if she wanted them to die there. Let me tell you, because of these police men, if I come to this life next time, I will not come as an ordinary human being. I will come with Ogbanje fetish powers to deal with them. All efforts to sort the case out, the police officer didn’t allow them, whereas they are all criminals,” she said.
Failed attempt to “settle” matter
Our correspondent also gathered that the family of the suspects and the victims had completed plans to settle the matter without involving the police, until a resident exposed the act on the social media.
A resident told our correspondent, “After spending two days at Shogunle Police Station, where the suspects were initially detained, the family of both the suspects and the victims agreed to settle the matter at home. But this morning, the police discovered that someone in the area had already posted it on the internet. So, they had no other option than to refer the matter to Ikeja.”
A police source at the Shogunle Police Division corroborated this, saying, “We have no option than to send them to the Gender Office at State Headquarters in Ikeja, since one of them had posted it on the internet. If we had mercy on them and asked them to solve the case as they later came and pleaded, it would have put us in trouble. But immediately we realised this, we transferred them to Ikeja, where the case will be dealt with accordingly.
A relation of one of the victims, Mr. Kayode Dada, said, “What happened to Bukola was very unfortunate. I am surprised that such evil-minded people live in that compound. I leant that the girl was raped by Charles, who told her to sell a mineral drink to him in his room. It was in the process that he forcibly slept with the 10-year-old girl. Although we have done the necessary test on the children in hospital and they were not infected. But I pray they are able to get out of the trauma easily.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Olarinde Famous-Cole, declined to comment on the incident as at press time, though he promised to get back to our correspondent.
