Facebook lover arraigned for attempted rape, murder

A 26-year-old man, who allegedly pushed down his Facebook lover from a multi-storey building over a disagreement over sex was arraigned in Lagos on Friday.

The accused,  Arthur Obiora, is facing a three-count charge of threat to life, attempted rape and attempt to cause bodily harm at  a Tinubu Magistrates’ Court.

The prosecutor, ASP A. C. Orji, told the court that Mr. Obiora met Nkiruka Akabuogu on Facebook  (a social media network)  and invited her to a club house in Apapa where they had drinks.

The prosecutor said the pair later moved to Mr. Obiora’s house at Block 10, Flat 317, 1004 Housing Estate, Victoria Island, Lagos.

Mr. Orji said Mr. Obiora, who claimed to be an unemployed graduate of Igbinedion University Okada and the Centennial College, Ontario, Canada, shut all the doors in the apartment and demanded to have sex with Ms. Akabuogu.

“This was after he had smoked some wraps of Indian hemp. He tried to rape her and threatened to kill her with a bottle of beer. The girl, fearing for her life, then jumped down from the third floor of the high/rise building,” Mr. Orji said.

The prosecutor said that the incident happened at about 3 a.m. on Oct. 31.

 “The girl was discovered lying unconscious in a pool of blood about 30 minutes later by the security men in the premises who then reported it to the police.

“The police took the girl to a hospital and after she regained consciousness, obtained her statement,’’ Mr. Orji said.

“This case highlights one of the major problems of the social media. The young lady went to visit someone she doesn’t know. She met the defendant on Facebook and they had been chatting until Oct. 30,” he said.

Mr. Orji said that the offences contravened Sections 56 (A), 260 and 404 (1) of the Criminal Laws of Lagos 2011.

The magistrate, Martins Owumi, granted the accused bail in the sum of N200,000 with two sureties in like sum.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that 21-year-old Ms. Nkiruka sustained multiple injuries, including a fractured pelvis, and is undergoing treatment at the General Hospital, Marina, Lagos, following the incident.

Ms Nkiruka, a Linguistics student of the University of Lagos, had told NAN on her hospital bed that she went clubbing with the young man she met on Facebook  a week earlier, and ended up in his family home at 1004 Estate, Victoria Island, Lagos.

She noted that the young man had earlier talked about sex on phone prior to the outing but she told him she was menstruating.

Ms. Nkiruka said that on getting to the house, the man tore her dress and tried to rape her.

According to Ms. Nkiruka, the man thereafter pushed her down from the third floor of the building because of her refusal to have sex with him.

But the mother of the young man, who was at home on the night of the incident, told NAN that she was not aware of what happened.

She claimed she slept around 10 p.m., while the disagreement between the pair  started much later.

The magistrate adjourned the case to Nov. 30.