By Oduwaiye Fela
Three men have allegedly gang-raped a 15-year
old girl at the Ikorodu area of Lagos, as the police are alleged to be
threatening the victim’s parents to settle the matter out of court.
The state government
had earlier blamed the police for frustrating rape cases by threatening
victims and their families to withdraw their cases. Two of the men have been arraigned at one of the newly
established Family Courts in Ikeja for allegedly raping the girl.
The suspects are being tried by the Lagos State Office of the Public
Defender, OPD, while the third suspect is still at large. It was learnt
that the victim was lured to No 23, Fola Mustapha Street, in Ajegunle
area of Ikorodu by her classmate (name withheld), a 16-year old girl, on
the pretext that she wanted to return a text book which she had earlier
borrowed from the victim.
The victim was deceived by her friend who
had already arranged with the three suspected rapists to have sex with
her forcefully. The three suspects; Yusuf Mohammed, Rasheed Oyedepo and
Tunde were alleged to have inflicted bodily injury on the girl (name
withheld).
It was gathered that the raped girl’s friend deliberately
delayed her classmate for hours and enabled the heinous crime by
putting on the generator set, on the pretext that she needed to charge
her phone.
According to the OPD , the victim wanted to take her
leave in annoyance when it was getting too late for the her to return
home, but her friend told her to wait for a while before taking her to a
new room where she was raped in turns by the gang.
While taking
turns to rape the girl, the noise from the generator and the music they
were playing prevented the people outside from hearing the screaming and
wailing of the girl. On getting home in a bad condition, the girl’s
mother took her to a private clinic for medical attention.
She was
taken to Ikorodu General Hospital for proper medical treatment, where it
was discovered that her womb had been tampered with at the private
clinic.
The victim was in a critical condition as she was admitted
in the hospital for three days while undergoing blood transfusion. A new
twist has, however, been added to the story as the police has
transferred the suspects, whose cases are already in court, to the State
Criminal Investigation Department, SCID, Panti for investigation, an
act the OPD described as unlawful.
It was gathered that the police
had gone to the girl’s family threatening the mother for taking the case
to OPD, after which they transferred the suspects to SCID, Panti. It
would be recalled that the government has established a clinic where DNA
tests will be conducted on rape victims and suspected rapists to enhance
prosecution of the cases.
Source: National Mirror
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