Rape Case Between Army Colonel, Girl, 16, Takes A New Turn

The rape case between a Nigerian Army Colonel and a 16 year old girl might have taken a taken a new turn and would continue in a high court as the magistrate court presently handling it ruled out self on grounds of lack of jurisdiction.

The case involving a minor (Name withheld) and Lt. Col William L Nzidee of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna was struck out by a magistrate court, yesterday, over lack of jurisdiction.

When the case came up for hearing at a Chief Magistrate Court in Barnawa Kaduna, the trial Chief Magistrate, Sa’adatu Sambo, was told that the accused was absent in court and was represented by his counsel, Barrister Odogiyon Lanke who disclosed that they had reached an out of court settlement with the counsel to the complainant.

However, Counsel to the complainant, Dyagas Ezekiel argued that there was no out of court settlement reached by the two parties.

“We insisted that service should be affected on the Chief of Army Staff and processes should be followed, because if we are talking of settling a matter out of court,we have to make sure that we hold something.” he said.

Chief Magistrate Sa’adatu Sambo in her ruling struck out the case, and said “this court will not start what it cannot finish. So, the case should be taken to the high court or the Nigerian Police for proper investigation and prosecution.”

She urged the counsel to the complainant to guide his client on how to go about taking up the case at the high court.

LEADERSHIP findings however revealed that the accused person is making all efforts to ensure that the case did not see the light of the day. It was also learnt from the same source that money is being offered to the family of the minor to discontinue the case, while the Church in the NDA where the accused person worships also wants the case settled out of court.