Man kidnaps girl he met on Facebook, rapes her for seven days, demands N3m ransom
Suspect rapes victim twice daily for seven days
Credit: Edo Police Command
A man who kidnapped a teenaged girl in Edo State and kept her as a sex slave for seven days has been arrested by the police.
The man, Tajudeen Igikalo, 19, was arrested, while the hapless girl, 16, was rescued by the Edo State Police Command.
The victim who is a Senior Secondary student from Benin City met the suspect on Facebook in February, 2021.
They maintained contact for about a month, chatting and exchanging calls.
The suspect then invited the girl to his house at Egba on Benin-Auchi Road in Edo State.
The girl decided to visit Igikalo at his residence on Thursday, 25 March 2021, after closing from school.
That was when her ordeal started, as the suspect kidnapped her immediately and kept her in captivity for seven days.
He allegedly raped her twice daily for the duration of her captivity.
Igikalo was not content with the free sex, he allegedly removed the SIM card from his victim’s mobile phone and contacted her family, demanding N3 million ransom for her release.
He threatened to sell the girl, whose name is not mentioned because she is minor, to Fulani herders if they failed to pay the ransom.
The victim’s mother was able to raise N550,000, which she packaged as instructed on March 29.
On Thursday, 1 April, the victim was rescued at a residential address in Egba on Benin Auchi road after investigators arrested the suspect.
Narrating her ordeal, the victim told Standard Gazette:
“I met him on Facebook last month. He asked me to visit him, and I never knew he had the plan to kidnap me. I (had) never had sex before. He raped me twice a day for seven days. I am still in pain now.”
The suspect did not deny. He said he kidnapped the girl because he needed money to sort out some issues.
“I have been chatting with her on Facebook since February 2021, and we agreed to meet. I called the mother for ransom because I need money to sort out some issues. I spent two years in Ghana and returned to Nigeria recently,” he said.
Spokesperson of the State Police Command, Contacted, SP Bello Kontongs, who confirmed the arrest, said, the suspect will be charged to court for kidnapping.
He warned young girls to be careful and be especially wary of the people they meet on Facebook.
