The Suspected Killers of Cynthia Osokogu
Segun Atanda/
While Nigerians are still waiting for justice to be served five years after Cynthia Osokogu was raped and killed by Facebook friends, the British criminal justice system today put Nigeria to shame.
In just six weeks, five men who committed a similar offence in Britain have been tried and jailed, says www.mirror.co.uk.
The gang that groomed teenage girls on Facebook before raping them in attacks in Coventry have been jailed for a total of 44-and-a-half years today.
The five men, who are all from the city, plied their victims with alcohol and drugs before the attacks in 2015 and 2016.
Waqaar Khan, Marcus Woolcock, Kadeem Bourne, Keenan Kelly and Zahid Chaudhary were found guilty of a total of 18 offences just before last Christmas.
In Nigeria, 24-year-old Cynthia, the only daughter of General Frank Osokogu (retd), was murdered on July 22, 2012 at Cosmilla Hotel, Lakeview Estate, Festac Town, in Lagos by her Facebook lover and friends.
Her body was found in a Lagos morgue a month after she was declared missing by her family.
She was a post-graduate student who had a boutique in Nasarawa State until her death.
Police detectives led by the then Area Commander of Festac, Mr. Dan Okoro, were celebrated nationally and internationally when they cracked the case quickly with the aid of technology and arrested four suspects – Okwumo Nwabufo, 33; Olisaeloka Ezike, 23; Orji Osita, 33; and Ezike Nonso, 25.
The suspects were charged to court on a six-count charge of conspiracy, murder, stealing, recklessness, negligence and possession of stolen goods.
The murder trial began on February 8, 2013, with the state calling the hotel’s receptionist as the first witness.
When the trial resumed on January 12, 2017, Justice Olabisi Akinlade of the Lagos High Court sitting at Igbosere reportedly complained about lawyers using delay tactics. She has, however, fixed March 23 for judgment.
Akinlade had frowned at the delay by the second defendant’s counsel, A. Nwachukwu, in filing his final written address.
She said that the court would not entertain delay tactics from any counsel to forestall justice in all cases.
Victor Okpara, who spoke for all the defence counsel, said the trial was fair and they expected their clients to be discharged and acquitted.
Back to the British gang, the Coventry Telegraph also reports that the men were found guilty of charges including sexual assault and human trafficking following a six-week trial at Warwick Crown Court.
Khan, 24, and 23-year-old Bourne, were found guilty of two counts of trafficking and three of rape, with Bourne also guilty of a sexual assault.
Chaudhary, 20, was found guilty of trafficking.
The youngest in the group, 18-year-old Kelly, was convicted of two rapes, one sexual assault and one count of trafficking.
A victim impact statement from one of the two teenage victims described how “her ability to trust individuals has been severely affected” and she had sought medical help to “cope with day-to-day life.
“I feel like I will never be the same again.”
Judge de Bertodano told the five defendants that they all come from supportive families they must all have “younger sisters or cousins who you would be horrified for if anyone treated them in the way you treated these girls”.
She added: “Your families have had to sit and listen to what you have been doing which bears no reality at all to the person they have brought up.
“You five are all here because of what happened between you and two teenage girls.
“You, as older boys and young men, each in different ways, took advantage of the naivety of these teenage girls, in order to sexually exploit them.
“You, Waqaar Khan, used the fact that through social media it is easy to get in touch with girls and to exploit their desire to be grown up and rebellious in order to persuade them to get in to cars with you, and to then sexually exploit them when they have no realistic chance to escape.”
Khan was handed 14-and-a-half years in prison, while Bourne was given 13-and-a-half years behind bars.
Kelly was given a sentence of 10 years, with Woolcock and Chaudhary given two-and-a-half years and 18 months respectively.
Read the Mirror story here, please: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/facebook-rape-gang-who-plied-9697442
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If the Police actually did a thorough job, by now, justice is expected to have been served. In the United Kingdom, Police carries out full investigation, backed with evidence, then filed for prosecution. The bane of our major problem in Nigeria is corruption.