Police detectives at Oleh Division in Isoko South Local Government Area of Delta State, yesterday, arrested a 61-year-old bricklayer, identified as Chima Ogoroh, for allegedly impregnating a 13-year-old groundnut hawker in the area.
The Police Commissioner in the state, Mustafa Muhammad, who confirmed the arrest of the suspect to newsmen, said: “the man was arrested by the police detectives attached to Oleh Police Division. He put the small girl into family way through unsuspecting way of patronising her whenever she sells groundnuts to his house. Upon interrogation, she admitted to the act, and investigation is ongoing”.
It was gathered that the underaged girl (name withheld) was brought into Oleh community as a house-help when she was 10-years-old from Akwa Ibom State, and was placed under the custody of a couple, who had been married for thirteen years without a child.
The couple, who spoke to newsmen, said: “We took custody of the small girl when she was ten years and the parents are in Akwa Ibom. We often give her groundnuts to sell for us. The groundnuts are from our farm land, we are farmers. She suddenly came home one day and told us how the bricklayer lured her into his bedroom for sex, and gave her N2,000. She was now sick, and the doctor confirmed that she was pregnant. We reported to the police, who then arrested the suspect”.
Unconfirmed sources said the suspect had allegedly been taking teenage girls to bed since his wife left him over irreconcilable differences, after wooing them with “mouth-watering” offers, including cash gifts.
A resident at Cole Oke Street, Oleh, where the suspect lives, who did not want his name in the print, said: “the suspect spends money on small girls, and takes them to bed. He had been doing it, his cup is filled now.”