14-Year-Old Girl Raped by ExxonMobil Engineer Recounts Ordeal

The 14-year-old girl raped by an ExxonMobil engineer, James Onuoha, in Lagos (read here and here) has recounted her ordeal.

The poor girl who was reportedly brought to Lagos from Enugu two weeks before the unfortunate incident was raped in a mini-flat the suspect let out to her uncle in the Ajah area of Lagos on January 4.

Recounting how it all happened, the victim told Punch said she heard a knock on the gate of their compound at about 11am that Monday morning and when she went to check who it was, she met Onuoha at the gate, and he told her he was the landlord and was looking for her uncle. She added:

“I told him my uncle and aunty were not around and he said he would wait for them. I did not see anything wrong in that and I opened the gate for him to come in.

My sister (her four-year-old cousin in fact) and I were watching cartoon. He sat down to watch with us. Later, he started to ask how old I was. When I told him, he asked if I wanted a job. I told him that my uncle had just brought me to Lagos to put me in school and that I did not want a job.

He said he works in a big oil company and could get me a job if I wanted. I told him no. He later asked if I had a phone and what my phone number was. I told him I did not know my phone number by heart and he took my phone to look at it.”

She said she later stood up to go inside the room to arrange some things because she was no longer comfortable sitting and chatting with the man and surprisingly, he followed her.

“He followed me into the room. He then opened the toilet of the master bedroom and looked inside there. He also checked inside the wardrobe. When I asked what he was looking for, he said he needed to be sure that I was not lying that my uncle and aunty were not around.

After he was done, I waited for him to leave the room but he did not. He grabbed me and pushed me on the bed. When he realised that I was shouting, he took one of the pillows on the bed and used it to cover my face,” she said.

This happened in the presence of her uncle’s four-year-old daughter. She added he dropped N1,000 on the bed after raping her, telling her to use it to take care of herself. She continued, “He said when he came back the following day, he would get me a better phone.”

READ ALSO: How Man Allegedly Raped Neighbours’ Nine Children in Ebonyi

Traumatised, she reportedly broke down in tears as the man exited the house.

Her uncle said when his wife, who got home first, arrived and saw the girl crumbled on the floor and crying, she asked what was wrong but got no reply as she continued crying uncontrollably. He said:

“I had earlier missed calls from my landlord and my wife. I was in the market at the time and could not call them back. When I had the chance, I called my wife and she asked if I had got a call from our landlord. I said no. She said she just got home and found my niece crying.

When my wife asked her what was wrong and my niece could not explain, my daughter took her to the bedroom and started demonstrating what happened. My wife told me that my daughter lay on the bed and spread her legs. The girl stood up again then started making a humping motion and said ‘Landlord did like this and like this. That is what landlord did to Aunty…on your bed’. The little girl demonstrated everything that happened in her presence in the room.

I was mad. I rushed home and still found my niece crying. Again, my daughter took me to the room and started to demonstrate ‘what landlord did to aunty’.”

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The man said since he did not want to make any mistake that would scuttle their case, he instantly called a lawyer. The lawyer then advised he needed to get confirmation that the landlord was indeed in their house. He continued:

“I called my landlord and apologised to him that I missed his calls. I told him that I had been trying to call him so that we could negotiate when I would pay his outstanding rent.

I owe him some months of rent and that was why he came to our house in the first place. He said that he was in my house when he was calling me and that even my wife was not around too.

I apologised to him and said if he had told me that he was coming, I would have prepared for him. That was how I knew that my little girl was not lying that he was indeed at my house.”

It was learnt that after the case was reported at the Langbasa Police Division, Ajah, Onuoha refused to report when he was summoned. He allegedly went to the Zone 2 Police Command to make a counter report against the victim’s uncle.

A policeman at the Langbasa division said one of their colleagues at Zone 2 suddenly came and collected the case file, the report of the test conducted on the girl and every evidence relating to the case.

The case which is now in court is billed for further hearing on February 23, 2016.