Suleja: Police arrest security guard over alleged rape, killing of 11-year-old girl in Niger

The Niger State Police Command has arrested a 26-year-old security guard, Godwin Dauda, over the alleged rape and killing of an 11-year-old girl, Christabel Albert, in Suleja.

The Police Public Relations Officer, SP Wasiu Abiodun, disclosed this in a statement on Friday, saying the girl was reported missing after she left home on September 19 to attend a relative’s birthday ceremony in the area.

According to the police, a pastor of the Apostolic Church, Suleja, later reported that a body had been found inside a well within the church premises.

Police officers visited the scene and, with the assistance of local government welfare officials, recovered the body and took it to General Hospital, Suleja, where it was identified as that of the missing girl.

The police said suspicion fell on Dauda, a security guard attached to the church, after he allegedly fled the premises following the discovery of the body.

He was arrested around 8pm on September 23 in the Kuje area of the Federal Capital Territory, where police said he had gone to hide.

Abiodun said the suspect confessed during interrogation that he lured the girl into his security room at the church on September 19 and sexually assaulted her.

According to the police, Dauda further confessed that the girl died during the assault and that he dumped her body in the well in an attempt to conceal the crime before fleeing.

The command said a preliminary investigation was ongoing and that the suspect would be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Minna, for further investigation and prosecution.