In Calabar,there was pandemonium in the early hours of yesterday, when 25-year-old Monday Udeme was beaten up for defiling his best friend’s six-year-old daughter at their King Duke Street residence in Calabar South Local Government Area, Cross River State.

An eyewitness, Ekpeyong Bassey,who works in a bakery close to the scene, told Vanguard that problem started on New Year eve when Asuquo, the girl’s father, discovered that his daughter’s pant was damp.

The father, it was learned, scolded the girl for wetting herself. But she reportedly told his father that she did not urinate on herself. The father, Asuquo, decided to examine her and discovered that the girl’s private part was discharging substance.

Ekpeyong said: “Asuquo started probing her and threatening her. That was when she opened up and told him that it was Uncle Udeme who raped her.

“Because of the New Year celebration, Udeme was still outside. The suspect and Asuquo were roommates. So they waited for him to come back.“ On sighting Udeme, some of Asuquo’s friends pounced on him and started beating him. They gave him a beating of his life. I leave him to God.”

When Vanguard visited Asuquo, who was very emotional about what happened, he expressed shock over what his friend Udeme did to his daughter even after sheltering him for close to a year. In his words: “Udeme is my very good friend. I took him in when he was dismissed from the bakery across the road, because they accused him of always stealing their bread.

“He does not have relatives here and the ones he has do not even want to see him anymore because of his attitude. What he has done to my girl is despicable, and I know God will judge him because I do not want to arrest him, neither am I going to push the matter.

“I am crying because he has damaged my baby’s life. She told me he has done it four times. That is most painful. She was defiled in 2014. Why are they doing this to my little girl all the time? And they are all people I know.

”The victim’s father further told Vanguard that although the girl’s mother left them when things got a bit tough for him after he lost his father, he had no option than to take his daughter back to her mother to ensure she gets all the care she needs. He said: “I have called to tell the mother what happened. She would be here any moment to pick her so that she would take care of her till they can go to the hospital on Monday. I have also told them to leave the idiot before they say I killed somebody this 2017.”

A neighbour, who pleaded anonymity, corroborated what the victims father had earlier said about how the child was defiled, when she was about four years old, by a co-tenant.

Vanguardngr