Lagos Football Club Manager Arrested for Defiling Teenage Players

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested a football club manager, Frank Darlington, for allegedly sodomizing three of his teenage players in the Agege area of the state.

It was gathered that Darlington, the manager of Soccer Warriors Football Academy, Pen Cinema, was arrested last Thursday by the Elere Police Division after one of the victims reported him to the police.

Darlington, a native of Imo State, allegedly took three footballers to his house on separate occasions after training sessions and sodomized them.

The police said the suspect allegedly penetrated the victims’ anuses and would be charged for sodomy.

The suspect told newsmen that he started to rape his players in February 2015.

He added that he committed the act to derive pleasure.

He said, “I have a female daughter, and she is three years old. I manage the Soccer Warriors Football Academy in the Pen Cinema, Agege area. It was in February 2015 that the rape started. I usually had sex with my boys just to play with them. It was romance. We had fun together. The last one I did was in July 2016, knowing that it could get me into trouble.

“I slept with only three of my footballers. There was one of my boys that had not been coming for training since last week. When I asked him, I was told that he was sick. I did not know that he had reported to his mother and she had told the police.

“I do not know what moved me to be sleeping with them. I have been coaching for about 12 years. My wife stays in the South-East. She left me in March 2016. The sex with the boys was not for any ritual. I only derived fun from it.

“I knew it was a crime and that was why I stopped this act since July. I pledged not to go back into this.”

One of the victims, Kehinde (pseudonym), told Punch that Darlington threatened him that he (Kenny) would die if he told anyone about the sodomy.

The 18-year-old said he was forced to tell his mother when Darlington made it a habit.

He said, “He always had sex with me and with most of us. He started last year. The first time he approached me was after a training session. We were on the football pitch and he said my performance was bad and I should meet him at home for a discussion.

“When I went, he and two boys were at home. His wife did not stay with him. He sent the two boys on an errand and asked me to come into his room. He then instructed me to remove my trousers, and he molested me.

“He did not use any protection. He did not give me any money, but he threatened that I would die if I told anyone. I cannot count how many times he had done this to me. I told my mother when I was tired of his abuse. My mother reported him at the police station.”

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, who paraded the club manager, said the suspect would be charged to court at the end of the investigation.

“There is no place for criminals to hide in the state. We enjoin the residents of Lagos to report suspicious movements and persons to the police,” he added.

13 Year Old Defiled By 32 Year Old Welder

A petty trader, Mrs Mojisola Oyelola, on Wednesday narrated at an Ikeja High Court how her 13-year-old niece was defiled by a 32-year-old welder, Adewunmi Adetuyi. Adetuyi, whose address is unknown, is facing a charge of defilement before Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye. Oyelola, while being led in evidence by the prosecuting counsel, Mr Jide Boye, told the court that the defilement occurred in 2014.

He said:“My 13-year-old niece was defiled by a 32-year-old welder on March 17, 2014. “On that fateful day, I made a wheat meal for dinner, but my niece told me she was not interested in eating it.

“I gave her money to buy rice from a canteen three houses away from our home.

“She left the house about 7.30 p.m. and at about 9.00 p.m. when she had not returned, I became very worried.”

Oyelola told the court that she alerted her neighbours, who organised a search party for her ward . “I could not go with my neighbours for the search because I was battling with an illness.

“A few minutes after 11.00 p.m., the neighbours returned with her and I asked where she went and she told me that she was waylaid on her way to the canteen and taken away by someone.

“I asked her who took her away and she refused to tell me, so I asked the neighbours to give her a punishment known as ‘frog jump.” The petty trader said while her niece was being punished, the neighbours noticed that her dress was stained by blood.

“She told me that she was taken to an uncompleted building and raped by a welder who was known to her but unknown to me.

“We went to the police station at midnight and the police advised that my niece should not have her bath or remove her cloth to preserve the evidence and that we should go to a hospital as soon as possible,” she said.

Oyelola said the welder was apprehended at his workshop by neighbours the following morning. Oyelola, while being cross-examined by the defense counsel, Mr Nwoha Nwabaka, told the court that her niece was mensturating during the alleged assault. She said:“My niece was in the middle of her menstrual cycle when she was defiled.

“After the incident, she moved to her uncle’s house at the Tollgate area of Badagry due to the trauma.” Justice Ipaye adjourned the case to March 24 for continuation of trial.

Credit: Vanguard