A 19-year old lady identified as Adenike, (pseudonym) has reported to authorities three of her male neighbours namely, Habeeb Adisa (25), Kehinde Aderinoye (25) and Ilyas Ogundimu (27) for raping her.
The victim, a hair stylist, spoke with Punch, stating that she summoned the courage to speak about her predicament due to the fact that she did not want the trio to go scot free and do same heinous act to someone else.
She narrated how on Wednesday, June 17, 2015 the three men violated her and betrayed her trust, as she bestowed more trust on them than any other person in the neighbourhood.
In an angry but calm tone she said, “I became friends with them as neighbours two years ago when my mother first rented an apartment in the area.
“Kehinde began to make advances to me.
“But i told him we were friends and did not want to be in a relationship with him.
“I have always rejected his advances.
“Later he would tell Habeeb and Ilyas to approach me to appeal on his behalf to accept his proposal, but i made them to understand that I could not go out with him.
“But we still talked and sat together in the neighbourhood as friends.”
“In the morning of that day, around 9:30am, I went over Kehinde’s like I usually did sometimes when I had nothing to do at home.
“I trusted them completely and usually went there to while away the time.
“Habeeb and Ilyas were there also.
“We were just talking when Habeeb suddenly came to me and picked me up.
“He threw me on the bed and I told him that I didn’t like that kind of play.
“I said, ‘If this is part of your playful habit I am not up for it.’
“But as he threw me on the bed, before I could stand up, he lay on me and pinned me down firmly.
“Kehinde quickly came over and started removing my underwear.
“That was when I knew what they wanted to do.
“I struggled with them but they pinned me down and took turns to rape me.
“When I was screaming, one of them quickly went to the CD player, which was on at the time and turned on the music to maximum volume so that it would drown out my voice.”
It was gathered that after the gang rape, the three friends hellishly smiled and asked the victim not to disclose what happened, but to see is as a mere sexual encounter.
The victim revealed, “They told me to just forget what happened and keep it between the four of us.
“But i realised that if I was afraid of stigma and kept it to myself, they would walk free and even boast to their friends about what they did to me.
“They would surely do it to someone else.”
The 19-year old, battered and bruised, took the courage to disclose to a trusted person in the neighbourhood about her ordeal with the trio and was accordingly advised to immediately report it to the Iju Police Division.
However, some landlords in the area rose to the defence of the three men.
The mother of the victim stated that this is because the parents of the rapists are landlords in the area.
She disclosed that she had been first threatened by them, that if she decide to tell the police about the matter, she would lose.
The Iju Police Division on Thursday, June 18, 2015 arrested the suspects.
It was learnt that the families of the culprits and other residents of the area came to the police station, pleading to the victim’s mother.
The Lagos Police Command’s spokesman, Mr. Kenneth Nwosu confirmed on Friday, June 19, 2015 that the suspects have been charged to court.
