A mother of two identified as Idowu Akinwunmi has
accused a Divisional Police Officer in Lagos Island, SP Adekunle
Awe, of raping her on Wednesday April 15th while in police custody
after she was arrested by men of the Onikan Police station, Punch reports.
According to Idowu, she was arrested on Tuesday 14th April after her boss, Ms
Idowu Pelumi had laid a complaint at the police station accusing her
of bringing a male friend to her restaurant to pass the night. Narrating her
story, Akinwunmi said;
"I work at an eatery on Keffi Street, Obalende, as a
cook. The eatery also has a tailor’s shop in the compound and it belongs to the
same person. There is also a quarters where we all live in the compound. Most
of the workers are from Cotonou, Benin Republic. On Monday, a popular
customer, known as Friday, came to eat. He later left, but some moments
later, he returned to say he could not get a bus home. Friday had
been making advances at me, but we were not a couple. I allowed him to sleep
over."
When her boss found out that Friday had slept at
her restaurant, she got the police to arrest both Idowu and Friday. And that
was where her nightmare began. Dear Lagos State police commissioner, hope you
will look into this matter. Continue...
"My madam called policemen to arrest all of us. I had
only a pair of shorts, a shirt and a wrapper on. I had N11, 000 in my pocket
and my phone was not with me. On getting to the station, I got the phone of a
policewoman and used it to call one of the tailors to come and help. In the
morning of Tuesday, two tailors, Ben and Matthias, arrived to bail out
their friends, but they were also arrested, bringing our total number to six.”
The following day which was April 15th, she ran into the DPO
of the police station after using the bathroom. DPO Awe asked her why she was
arrested and after narrating what happened, Idowu claims he then invited her to
his office...and had sex with her without using a condom
"Around 10pm on Tuesday, the DPO sent a policeman
to call Friday and I. I was wearing boxers and a top. I stayed at the
counter and Friday went in to see the DPO. A few minutes later, Friday came
out and the DPO called me in. The DPO said he could make sure that I spent the
rest of my life in jail, but I begged him. He then came close to me and started
rubbing his hands all over my body but I rejected his advances. He said my boss
had told him that he could do whatever he wanted to do with me. He said since I
was from Benin Republic, if he killed me, nothing would happen. He said he
would also make sure that the remaining five suspects would be sent to prison.
At this point, the DPO had already taken off his clothes. Since I was afraid
for my life, I allowed the DPO to have his way. I begged him to use a condom,
but he refused. He pushed me to a smaller room in his office and put me on the
bed and had sex with me. Immediately after he had finished, he told me to
shower in a bathroom inside his office.” she said.
She said the next morning while she was about to leave, the
DPO asked for her number but she refused to give it to him. She said the DPO
promised that with the sex she already offered, she would not pay any bail but
to her surprise, N30,000 was collected from her.
As soon as she left the police station, she went for a test
at the Lagos Island Maternity clinic. A copy of the medical report, signed by
one Dr. R. A. Seriki, stated,
“A complaint of sexual assault: General clinical condition
satisfactory; no laceration, no bruises, no areas of hyperemia, negative for
HIV 1 and 2, pregnancy negative. Has been placed on PEP and emergency
contraception".
Meanwhile the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria has
petitioned the National Human Rights Commission over the alleged rape of
Akinwunmi. Mr. Okechukwu Nwagunma who is the Co-coordinator of NOPRIN
says they would follow the case to its logical conclusion with the
view of getting Akinwunmi the justice she deserves. The case has now been
forwarded to the office of the Commissioner for Police, Umar Tanko, who had a
meeting with the accused DPO and Akinwunmi yesterday.
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