The Periscope Reporter
Abbati the criminal who raped a five year old girl currently receiving treatment at a hospital in Yola, Adamawa State Northeast Nigeria, has told the court hearing rape case, Tuesday that he was not nineteen but sixteen years old.
Abbati earlier, when arrested, having confessed to the crime, was said to have told the security officials that he was nineteen years old.
Governor Fintiri of Adamawa State directed that Abbati be transferred to prison from his luxury room at remand home.
However, without evidence to establish that Abbati’s age is beyond 16, he would have to be taken back to remand home from court, rather than prison.
The Coalition Against Rape that embarked on media sensitisation and some miles match against rape, feared that the rapist, taken for a juvenile delinquent, would soon be set free.
Activist Hauwa Garba argued that a 16 year old would not seek for harlots’ fee for service.
“Abbati the rapist tells the court he’s 16 years old but he has been patronising commercial sex workers at five hundred naira for service. Isn’t it enough justification that the adult rapist isn’t sixteen years old?” Garba asked.
The Coalition Against Rape feared that should Abbati be set free of stiffer punishment, his likes would join in assaulting the moral sensibility of the society to be taken for juvenile delinquents.
Hajiya Asmau Joda the leader of the coalition articulated a statistics, which suggested that on the average, there’s at least a rape crime every day as the reported cases of rape for the month of August and the present September has shown.
“About 30 rape cases are being recorded in just one month. It’s so alarming,” Joda would lament.