Medical report stalls police investigation on orphanage rape

APRIL 9, 2013 BY COMFORT OSEGHALE LEAVE A COMMENT

The orphanage

A meeting of all the parties involved in the Akute Orphanage saga, scheduled to hold on Monday was shelved after police investigators discovered the medical report of the two victims was not ready.

The result of the medical examination, conducted last week at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital is expected on Wednesday.

A Director of Light of Hope Orphanage Akute, Mr. Atunde, was last Wednesday arrested by the Zone 2 Police Command, following a petition, accusing Atunde of having sex with the two female minors in the orphanage.

The minors, a JSS I and JSS III student of a private secondary school at Akute, were subsequently taken from Atunde’s custody, and handed over to a non-governmental organisation, Project Alert on Violence Against Women.

PUNCH Metro gathered that Atunde who secured bail on Saturday arrived at Zone 2 on Monday in company with his lawyer and surety.

Representatives of the secondary school where the minors are said to be students and a lawyer representing Project Alert were also present.

“We were supposed to meet with the Deputy Commissioner of Police of the command today. After we all got here, we were told that the meeting had been postponed till Friday since the medical report of the girls was not ready. We are hoping the results would be out by Wednesday,” the lawyer with Project alert, Mr. Ben Odeh, said.

Sources told PUNCH Metro that despite the fact that Atunde was in police custody for three days, investigators at the Zone 2 command did not make effort to interrogate other minors presently living at the orphanage.

“One would have expected that in the light of such accusations against Atunde,  the police would also talk to other minors as part of their investigation. Till the time Atunde was released on Saturday, nothing like that took place,” the source who requested anonymity said.

The Zone 2 Police Public relations Officer Mr. Femi Balogun, when contacted said, “The case at present is between the minors who accused Atunde and the suspect himself.

“No one has spoken with the other minors at the orphanage. We are still investigating the case though.”