The Jigawa State Police Command said  over the last three weeks, it has charged 53 people to court over rape and sodomy highlighting the spate of the crimes in the state.

    

    One of the suspects charged to court was 40-year-old Idris Abdu, who was reported at the Hadejia Police Station to have taken a nine-year-old girl to his room and raped her. The suspect later confessed to the crime.

    The State Commissioner of Police, Henry Fadairo, told journalists in Dutse, the state capital,  in another case reported at the Gumel Police Station, the police were shocked when the father of the victim gave details of what happened to his 10-year-old daughter

“The father of the girl said another man, identified as 25-year old Nasiru Mohammed forced the same girl into an uncompleted building and raped her again.

    “The girl told her father that the first man who raped her (Abdullahi) had also raped her 10-year-old friend. The father of the second victim also reported the case. The culprits confessed to their crimes, revealing that they had raped the girls on many times.”

    Fadairo said that less than one month after he took over the mantle of leadership of the command, he charged the 53 suspects to court over 28 rape incidents and 25 sodomy allegations.

He told journalists that the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, is bent on ensuring that those involved in the crime are prosecuted.

    According to him, there is need for parents, religious and traditional rulers to rise up against the increasing cases of rape and sodomy in the state.

    He said, “I have started parading them publicly in order to make their prosecution a deterrent to others.”

    Fadairo said that in Garki Local Government Area of the state, a mother of an eight-year-old girl reported to the police that when her daughter was on her way to school, the Village Head of Kargo village, AbubakarYa’u, a 60-year-old man, waylaid the girl and took her to his room where he raped her.

    He said investigations by the police indicated that the village head actually committed the crime, adding that the suspect will soon be charged to court for prosecution.