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JOE EFFIONG, UYO
Akwa Ibom State police command has confirmed the arrest of a Nollywood actor, Mr Moses Armstrong, said to have alleged raped a 16-year old girl.
The police public relations officer (PPRO), Mr Odilko MacDon (SP) who confirmed this in a brief phone interview with our correspondent, said Armstrong is in their custody pending a report from the director of public prosecution (DPP).
“We have him in our custody. We are looking at it. We are trying to assess his culpability. We receive a complaint, a petition of his alleged involvement.
He has been picked up. We are looking at his case file. In fact, we have sent his case file to the DPP to determine. After that he will be charged to court.” MacDon said.
Our correspondent however learned that the victim had written a petition not directly to the police but through the Family Empowerment and Youth Reorientation Path Initiative (FEYReP), a pet project of Mrs Martha Udom Emmanuel, the wife of Akwa Ibom State governor.
Unconfirmed report has it that the lady in question, said to have been schooling in one of the West African countries, only returned to the country recently and decided to send the petition to the wife of the governor concerning the case said to have happened more than three years ago.
A government house source who pleaded anonymity however refuted the claim that the alleged rape victim was flown back to Nigeria in a chattered flight and has been kept incommunicado in Government House Uyo, where she was aided to chronicle the rape petition.
“There is no place in Government House that people are accommodated to and taught how to write petitions. The matter was reported to FEYReP which is an agency of the wife of the governor and the body, as usual, took it over for prosecution.
“His case is not the on;y one the agency has handled. it’s only that he is a popular person so many people have come to hear about it.”
Asked whether Armstrong’s travails have got anything to do with his political interest which may not be aligning with that of the state government, the source asked; “Of what political relevance is he? Can he even win in his unit not to talk of his ward which David Lawrence (a member of the state house of assembly) also comes from in Eket?”
Our correspondent however learned that the victim “is not even keen on the prosecution. All she wanted was an out of court settlement. Possibly, her friend who sold the idea to her that she could make money from the deal.”
