Human rights lawyer, Inibehe Effiong, has petitioned the Inspector General of Police (IGP) over what he describes as the police’s refusal to arrest Victor Ogbuja, one of the prime suspects in the death of 13-year-old Ochanya Ogbanje.
In the petition, submitted on Tuesday, November 4, Effiong said the action followed his engagement by the family of the late Miss Ochanya, adding that the police have “refused to arrest one Victor Ogbuja for the gruesome rape to death of the 13-year-old Ochanya Ogbanje.”
According to him, the suspect allegedly raped the deceased “for years until she developed fatal medical conditions, which is believed to have led to her untimely death.”
While Mr. Andrew Ogbuja, Victor’s father, was tried and acquitted by the Benue State High Court in April 2022 due to what Effiong called “prosecutorial failure,” Mrs. Felicia Ogbuja, Victor’s mother, was convicted and sentenced to five months imprisonment by the Federal High Court in Makurdi for “abdication of responsibility which resulted in the sexual exploitation and death of the deceased in contravention of the NAPTIP Act.”
Effiong stated that Victor Ogbuja has remained at large for seven years, having fled Benue State when Ochanya died. He urged the IGP to “urgently recall the police case file from the Benue State Police Command to the Force Headquarters, Abuja,” and to direct and supervise his arrest for prosecution.
He further called for police protection for the Ogbanje family “due to the repeated threats to their lives.”
For some weeks now, there has been public outrage on social media with many Nigerians calling for the arrest and prosecution of the suspect, Victor and his father, Andrew Ogbuja.
The petition reignites calls for justice in a case that has remained one of Nigeria’s most tragic examples of sexual violence against minors.
