85-year-old man arrested for defiling 7-year-old girl

The Edo State Police Command has arrested an 85-year-old man, Peter Elaiho, for allegedly defiling a seven-year-old girl at Use, Ogida quarters, in Egor local government area of the state.

It was learnt that the case, which had since been transferred to the command headquartres for further investigation, was reported by one Mrs. Endurance Ogieva, the mother of the victim, at the Ogida Police Division in Benin.


Mrs. Ogieva, who claimed to be a food vendor, told our correspondent that the suspect had lured her daughter into his apartment after sending her to buy local gin‎.

She said she had gone to the building owned by the octogenarian, where she usually left her children in care of her sister, to check on her sick son but did not see her daughter.

The woman stated that she was drawn to the room of the suspect by the cry of her missing daughter and was shocked to find her in his room, while he (the suspect) was naked.

She said, “I did not see my daughter. I later heard her shouting. I traced the shouting to the landlord’s room, a man who is about 85 years old.”

“I rushed there and saw the man naked. I gripped the man and both of us fell inside the chair. The man was begging me to settle but my shout attracted people.

“When they checked my daughter’s vagina, they saw blood stains and sperm. I went to the police station and the man was arrested.”‎

The mother of the victim also alleged that she had been offered N1 million by relatives of the suspect for the case to be withdrawn but refused because she‎ wanted justice to be done.

Mrs. Ogieva who noted that a tear in her daughter’s private part had been confirmed in a clinic on the order of the police, said, the suspect also threatened to kill the victim, if she shouted.

“The family of the man has been begging me to close the case but I refused because the doctor said my child had to be checked and to also ascertain whether the man has any disease.

“The child is too small for a man that is 85. I don’t want money. They are promising to give me N1m but I want justice from the government,” she said.

However, the police spokesperson, told ‎our correspondent on telephone that the case was under investigation by the command.