The Borno State Police Command has confirmed the arrest of a humanitarian worker who allegedly raped a teenage Internally Displaced Person in Maiduguri.
The suspect, Hussarf Abdurauf, 35, a staff of INTERSOS, an international humanitarian organization, allegedly lured the victim to his apartment at 303 Housing Estate, near Dalori IDP camp, Maiduguri, under the guise of cleaning the place and allegedly raped her.
Spokesperson of the command, ASP Sani Shatambaya, said the incident happened on Tuesday, January 18, around 10.30am.
“Hussarf Abdurrauf took Aishatu Muhammed Adamu into his room on 303 Housing Estate and raped her. The victim started shouting in the process, which attracted the attention of neighbours, who gathered at the door, which made the suspect open the door, while the victim was crying ‘my virginity.’” he stated.
“The victim allegedly rushed into the room and stabbed herself with a knife to death. The suspect has been arrested and he’s in custody.” the PPRO added.
A neighbour, who asked not to be identified, told The Punch that the deceased was in company of three other girls, when the suspect called her to help him wash his clothes.
The neighbour said minutes after the victim entered the suspect’s room, people began to hear screams.
Upon getting closer and peeping through the window after several attempts to get the door opened proved fruitless, he said residents saw the teenager in a pool of blood.
“On that day, the girls were wandering about, looking for menial jobs to do for a fee when he called them to help him wash his clothes. When Aishatu (Adamu) went inside the one-room apartment to gather the clothes, he immediately closed the door behind her and people began to hear screams coming from the room,” he said.
“The other friends who were waiting for her to come out with the clothes approached the guy’s door and started banging for him to open, but he refused. We saw them struggling with the door, so we joined in knocking on the door, but he refused to open. So, we went to peep through the window and behold, the young girl was in a pool of blood on the floor of the room.”
A human rights activist, Lucy Yunana, told PUNCH that when the case was reported at the Gwange Police Station, the suspect claimed that the minor killed herself.
“While at the police station, I confronted the humanitarian worker, who identified himself as Hussarf, and he said the girl threatened to kill him after he raped her, but she ended up killing herself because, according to him, when she saw blood in her private parts, she said she could not face her parents with it and as such, she ended up stabbing herself. When I asked him why he didn’t stop her, he said he didn’t even realise she had stabbed herself.”
Yunana said when she confronted the culprit that his narrative did not add up, he attempted to bribe her.