A 17-year-old girl identified as Zara’u Buhari, has been r*ped to death in Kimba village in Jega Local Government Area of Kebbi State, where hoodlums abducted the victim and took turns to rape her.
According to reports, the criminals, numbering four and said to be armed with some dangerous weapons, kidnapped Zara’u, raped her severally and finally strangled her to death, to allegedly cover their tracks because she apparently knew them.
The Leadership reported that Zara’u was on her way to her elder sister’s house to keep her company because the sister’s husband had traveled and left the wife alone at home.
The teenager was said to have left home around 8pm for her sister’s house to spend the night when the gang, led by one Aliyu Sarkin Mata, accosted her on the road.
Speaking to a correspondent, the late girl’s father, Bello Buhari, a senior staff of Kebbi State Ministry of Finance, expressed his grief saying that the incident came to the family as a rude shock that will not be forgotten in a hurry.
He said “When the incident happened, I was not aware but was later informed that Zara’u could not be seen. She often visits her sister to keep her company in the absence of the sister’s husband.
“But my son called to inform me that Zara’u is missing, so I left the city and rushed to the village. As a matter of fact, I arrived Kimba around 10 pm and I met a group of sympathizers at my house in the village all looking worried.
“We got information that somebody who took the girl on a motorcycle was spotted at Alelu village, some two to three kilometers away from Kimba village where my daughter was kidnapped.
“We also got additional information that somebody, probably one of the criminals, advised the first suspect who kidnapped the girl to allow her to go free because the girl may have come from a decent family but he refused.
“Her lifeless body was dumped in the bush by the criminals in a bid to cover up for the evil deed but luck ran out on the miscreants as they were arrested by the police and detained at the Police Headquarters in Birnin Kebbi, the state capital.”
The state Commissioner of Police, CP, Kabiru Ibrahim, who confirmed the report, said he visited the village to see things for himself and was shocked at what he saw, and assured Buhari’s family of justice, stating that the police would do everything to bring the suspects to book and get justice for the deceased.
According to him, investigations launched by security officers after the case was reported to them led to the arrest of the first suspect who was spotted with the victim, while the body of the victim was discovered three days after she was murdered.
