How bus conductor in Kaduna allegedly raped 5-year-old for 2 years

A 24-year old man, Haruna Tukur, who works as a bus conductor in Kaduna, has been accused of serially raping a five-year old girl (name withheld).

Mr. Tukur was arrested and charged to a magistrate court in Kaduna on February 29, this year, for allegedly raping the minor.

But that didn’t deter him. He was said to have began raping her again immediately he was set free on bail, thereby prompting an outrage on the social media.

The travail of the little girl trended on the social media after one concerned Nigerian, Munirat Abdusalam, tweeted it, and afterwards granted an interview on the matter to the VOA radio programme on Hausa language, ‘Yau Da Gobe’.

Mr. Tukur is said to be feared within the Malali village, a suburb of Kaduna, because of his alleged membership of a notorious criminal gang in the area.

The victim’s mother (name withheld) said Mr. Tukur had been raping her daughter since she was three years old.

“She revealed to me that he (Tukur) usually lured her into a graveyard near her Islamic School, or an uncompleted building, or to an isolated refuse dump near LEA Primary School Ungwan Gado, to have sex with her and (then) give her a bottle of Maltina drink,” the victim’s mother told PREMIUM TIMES at their one room apartment in Malali.

“Some people advised us against reporting to the police since we did not catch him in the act,” she said. “So, we got scared and kept mute.

“The hospital we took her to had been treating her for pile. The hospital later seized her card when they discovered it was a rape case, and insisted we provide police report.”

The family alleged that Mr. Tukur, even while on bail from the court, threatened to attack them, if they failed to allow him continue to have his way with their little daughter.

“We are forced to withdraw our daughter from both western and islamic school because she still comes back home in pains with sperm all over her private part and her panties,” the girl’s mother said.

“Even last Tuesday, she said Haruna (Tukur) still lured her to uncompleted house and had sex with her, and (then) gave her Maltina.

“We reported the case again to Malali Police Station, and then we took her to Yusuf Dantsoho Hospital.

The victim’s father said the Village Head of Malali, Yahaya Umar, and the suspect’s family had been putting pressure on him to withdraw the case from court.

When PREMIUM TIMES contacted the head of Malali village, Mr. Umar, he admitted putting pressure on the girl’s father to withdraw the case from court, and take his daughter away from the area.

He said, when the case was reported to him, he insisted that the suspect must be caught in the act first before reporting the case.

“If I were the father of the girl, I will make sure I catch the suspect red handed, and then I will simply take my daughter far away from the area as the only solution to this case,” said the village head, who is a father of 17 children.

The Director of Public Prosecution in the state, Dari Bayaro, said Mr. Tukur’s bail would be cancelled soon, and then he would be re-arrested for rape.

Mr. Bayaro said, “We have filed application in the high court under section 350 of the criminal procedure to cancel the bail and re-arrest the suspect.”