The family of an 11-year old girl, Favour Okechukwu, has been thrown into mourning following the rape to death of the girl in Ejigbo area of Lagos.
The deceased, a Junior Secondary School 3 student was sent on an errand by her mother, by 3 p.m on Monday.
She was said to have been lured into a building on Olarewaju street, where four men took turns to rape her. She was suspected to have been gaged in the process, apparently to avoid raising that alarm.
Meanwhile back in her parent’s abode at Ore-Ofe street, apprehension had set it by 6 pm when her father, Okechukwu Dickson, returned home without any sight of his first child. When informed that she had not returned from the errand, he went in search of her.
To his dismay, Favour’s corpse was found in a building on Olarewaju street, not too far from her parents, close to two hours into the search.
On closer observation, she was discovered to be naked, with her body stained with blood.
Devastated by grief, the mother of the deceased who was still trying to come to terms with the crude reality of her daughter’s demise could not speak with journalists.
Mr. Okechukwu narrated how the incident happened: ” I was shocked when my wife said Favour hadn’t returned from where she was to collect a carton of the gala(snack) because it was unusual of her to stay long outside. I went to three of her classmate’s houses to look for her but they all said they didn’t see her. I was walking like a mad man, asking everyone I saw about her whereabout and it was getting dark.
” I saw a man who lives on the same street with me and told him I was looking for my daughter. He informed that he had to close early because a little girl was raped to death in a building close to his shop.
” I decided to go and check since I was looking for my daughter and he accompanied me to the building. Behold, when I got there, it was my daughter, Favour! She laid motionless. I shouted, shook her vigorously as I called out her name, begging her to wake up. But she didn’t respond. I was too shocked to believe she was gone just like that. A child I left hale and hearty while leaving the house in the morning, was gone when I returned”, he said in tears.
He, therefore, appealed to anyone with information on the fleeing assailants to avail such to the police, in order for her to get justice.
