A Senior Lecturer at the Department of Catering and Hotel Management in Benue State Polytechnic, Ugbokolo, Andrew Ogbuja, has been arraigned at the Upper Area Court I in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, for alleged criminal conspiracy and rape of a 13-year-old housemaid, Elizabeth Ochanya Ogbaje.
The court remanded the 51-year-old lecturer in prison custody.
The accused allegedly had carnal knowledge of the girl while she lived in his house.
The prosecution told the court that at noon on August 8, the body of women lawyers (FIDA) in Benue State, in company of the girl’s mother, Mrs Rose Abah of Ogene Amadu Edumoga, reported the matter to the police.
The First Information Report (FIR) indicated that Mrs Abah told the police that sometime in February, when Elizabeth was sick and admitted at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) in Makurdi, she told her that when she was staying with her cousin, Felicia Ogbuja, between 2013 and 2015, the son of her cousin, Victor Ogbuja, had canal knowledge of her.
The court also heard that the husband to her cousin, Andrew Ogbuja, also had canal knowledge of the teenager.
It was learnt that during police investigation, Andrew was arrested for committing the offence while his son, Victor, fled the area.
But the accused, who was arrested last Friday, pleaded with the judge to temper justice with mercy.