By Ikhili Ebalu Benin City.
The three suspected secret cult members spotted in a viral video maltreating a 24-year-old girl who made secret cult signs on social media earlier arrested by the police in Benin city have been charged to a Federal High Court in Benin City, Edo State.
The move is to ensure justice is served on the young girl stripped naked, recorded and posted on social media.
On the 24th of September, 2021, some suspected secret cult members trailed a young girl identified as Miss Gift Festus to Paulingo on an Upper mission extension in Benin city, where she was abducted to an unknown destination.
They are John Omozele, Smart Ogbeide and Tajudeen Afesume.
The girl was given the beaten of her life and stripped naked as her nakedness was recorded with mobile phones and posted on social media by the secret cult members.
The girl’s offence was that she displayed signs of a particular secret cult group and placed it in the Tik Tok, a social media network.
The beating of the girl and her nude videos went viral on social media.
The situation forced men of the Anti-Kidnapping and Cyber Crime Unit of the Edo state police command to thoroughly analyse the video and arrested the three suspects.
Those arrested include Omonzele John, Smart Ogbeide and Tajudeen Afesueme.
Police say they are all members of a particular secret cult group in Benin city.
They have now been charged to a Federal High Court in Benin City.
In the charge sheet with number FHC/B/137/2021 and exclusively obtained by standard Gazette crime correspondent Festus Alenkhe, the accused persons are being held for Cyberstalking, an offence punishable under section 24 (i) of the Cybercrime prohibition and prevention Act 2015.
The second count accused them of knowing and intentionally sending to the Internet a grossly offensive video of the stripping naked and physically brutalised one Miss Gift Festus.
Similarly, the accused were charged to court for kidnapping and attempted murder of the young girl.
They were also accused of belonging to an unlawful society and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 516 of the criminal code Act, Cap C38, laws of the federation of Nigeria, 2004.
Edo State Police Public Relations Officer SP Bello Kontongs said the suspects were not granted bail by the police but decided to diligently prosecute them according to Nigerian Law.
According to the Edo Police image-maker, “I can say clearly that they were arraigned in court and have now been remanded in Prison custody as the case continues.
Cyberstalking is a Federal offence where offenders are usually tried in the federal High court”.
