All hopes were virtually lost for the family of Richard Omaligbe, when their 12-year-old daughter, Philomena, disappeared from the house.
Philo, as the Junior Secondary School (JSS) girl is fondly called, left home on November 12, 2010, and was declared missing by the police on November 13 after she failed to return.
Her sudden disappearance, Daily Sun gathered, actually traumatized her family, who thought something tragic had happened to her. “We went from school to school, everywhere, including mortuaries, but she was nowhere to be found, her guardian, Richard said.
According to him, they didn’t restrict their search there, as they also went to churches, inquiring from prophets on what might have happened to her.
Daily Sun gathered that the little girl ran away from the house, after her uncle’s wife threatened to report her to her teacher, for failing to carry out domestic chores. It was during the period that the suspect saw and accommodated her. But he later converted her to his wife, The cat was, however, let out of the bag when some detectives from the Festac police division, traced her to the house of the 37-year-old Timothy Udochi.
The minor, gave a graphic account of how she was allegedly adopted by the man from Abia State. The victim disclosed that as she stayed near a shop in a street at Festac town, she saw Udochi, who approached her and inquired why she was downcast. She was said to have told Udochi, who she referred to throughout the interview as “uncle,” that she was running away from her uncle and his wife.
She said: “Uncle (Udochi) gave me N10 to buy sachet water for him. Immediately I collected the money, I did not know what came over me. The man held my hands and took me away.”
The girl, who wept as she narrated her ordeals, said when they got to the man’s house at Ajamgbadi, he told her how he would train her to the university level and marry her when she grew up. “He warned me not to tell anybody that I was his wife-to-be. He said if people asked me, I should tell them that I was his kid sister,” she said.
She alleged that the man changed her name from Philomena to Faith James, which she started bearing. “The uncle told me that he is God-sent, designed to rescue me from the hands of my relatives, who he alleged wanted to destroy me. He now registered me in a primary school and I started bearing his name.” According to her, on the second day in the man’s house, he told her he wanted to discuss an important issue with her. Hear her: “But he started kissing and touching all parts of my body. He pulled off my clothes and warned to kill me, if I did not allow him to have sex with me. So, when he held my neck and threatened to twist it, I allowed him to have his way.
“As he was doing it, blood was gushing out from my private part and I was crying. He did it the second time. The following day, he continued and I became tired of what he was doing to me every night and very morning, before he went to work. If I refused, he would beat me. So, he did it always, such that my private part became too wide.” She revealed that it was Udoch, who deflowered her. “I had not slept with any other man before uncle had sex with me. When he did it for the first time, he put pampers on my private part. He explained that the blood gushing out from my private part was because it was my first time.”
She said she was thinking about what to do before policemen stormed the house. “I thank God and the police for saving me, because I was tired of the whole mess,” she said. The suspect, who begged for forgiveness, said he thought he was a good Samaritan. “I thought I was helping her. She had no shelter and I offered her one. What is my offence,” he queried. He corroborated the little girl’s story on how she was running away from punishment before she met him. “I offered to take her back to her parents, but she refused. I started feeling for her. I took her as my daughter and decided to take her home.
“I am a human being with flesh and blood. One day, I was watching the girl, I did not know what came over me. So, I had sex with her. I can’t say the number of times I slept with her. She only stayed with me for 22 days.”
He said rather than blaming him, the girl’s family should commend him. “They should appreciate me for saving her from being killed by some hoodlums. I did my best for her, such that I registered her in a school.
A detective, who spoke to Daily Sun on condition of anonymity, said when the news of the sudden disappearance of the young girl reached the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Marvel Akpoyibo, he ordered the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), Festac, Mr. Usman Ndanbobo, to fish out the alleged abductor and to rescue the girl.
Mr. Ndanbabo was said to have used some policemen in mufti to trace the residence of the suspect, after some people revealed that they saw him with the girl the day she got missing.
On the day the girl was rescued, Udochi had finished making love to her. He was naked, relaxing on the bed when policemen forced the door open. The suspect would soon be charged to the court for alleged abduction, defilement and other related offences. Meanwhile, the medical test conducted on her showed that she is HIV negative and not pregnant.
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