A forty-five-year-old official of Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE), Rivers State, Mgbechi Weke, has been remanded at a correctional centre after being charged with raping a minor.

Magistrate Gomba Osaro of Senior Magistrate Court in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, remanded Weke for allegedly raping his 16-year-old stepdaughter.

Weke was accused of having unlawful carnal knowledge of the teenager on January 13, 2021 at Rumuakwude community in Emuihua Local Government Area of the state.

He pleaded not-guilty, but was denied bail on the grounds that the charge against him is a capital offence punishable by life imprisonment on  conviction.

Prosecutor Jane James, of the Centre for Basic Rights Protection and Accountability Campaign, a non-government organisation, had argued that Weke might harm the victim and her mother if admitted on bail.

She alleged that the defendant, in 2018, attempted to rape the victim’s elder sister, warning her not to tell anyone or risk being killed.

The court declined the bail and ordered that Weke be remanded in a Port Harcourt correctional facility till the next adjourned date.

The magistrate adjourned the case till February 22.

On Monday, gunmen killed a student of Benue State University, Jessica Agee, police said on Tuesday.

The university also confirmed the killing.

Police spokesperson DSP Catherine Anene said Agee was killed at her residence at Gyado Villa in the state capital on Monday night.