PUNCH
On June 29, a 17-year-old secondary school student was allegedly raped by Superintendent of Police Owolabi (surname withheld) at the Ogudu Police Station in Ojota, Lagos.
The senior officer had reportedly promised to help the girl track and retrieve her phone which had been taken from her at gunpoint about two weeks earlier.
Speaking to Saturday PUNCH, the girl said, “On June 16, my grandma and three siblings were robbed while we were on our way from a family friend’s party at Ikeja. The cab driver took the wrong turn and I was sitting beside the driver so I told him ‘Sir, you took the wrong exit,’ but he said he was going to make a U-turn back.
“Along the way to the U-turn, he suddenly switched off the engine and brought out a gun and knife and collected my phone and that of my grandma. He also collected every jewellery he could find on us. He then left us there.”
On Thursday, June 20, the teenager visited her mother’s shop, located near the police barracks where Owolabi resided. She began narrating in detail how they had been robbed.
According to her, while she was recounting her ordeal, the suspect was seated in the shop with her mother, listening in on their conversation.
The teenager added, “SP Owolabi said he was going to help me track my phone and he told my mum to send him my phone number, the colour of my stolen phone, and a statement. We did that.
“On that Saturday when he asked me to come to Ogudu station where he works saying they had arrested the suspect who stole my phone, my mother was in the market and I didn’t even know the station, I had to ask for directions to the place.”
Our correspondent learned that when the girl showed up at the police station, the suspect reportedly invited her into his office, locked the door, and raped her.
“After raping me in his office, he removed my shoes and made me sit on the floor. I began to regret coming to the station or even attempting to retrieve my phone in the first place. He harshly told me to get out of his sight.
“He told me, ‘Did you see that everyone here calls me the boss and obeys me? You can’t do anything.’ When I walked out of the police station, he still followed me outside and warned me that if I said a word to anyone, he would deal with me,” the teenager told our correspondent.
In an emotion-laden tone, her mother, Mrs Aramide Olupona, told Saturday PUNCH that her daughter began to bleed after the rape and had to be taken to a hospital.
“On the evening of that Saturday, she began complaining of stomach pain, but by Sunday she began to bleed. We went to two hospitals but they couldn’t attend to us because their doctors were either busy or weren’t available.
“We went to Gbaja Hospital where we were attended to and from there we went to Mirabel at the Lagos State Teaching Hospital for medical tests and collection of evidence. All her medical reports are there.
“Owolabi lives at the Iponri police barrack and my shop is beside his house so he sometimes comes to sit at my shop. I never expected that he would do such a thing to my daughter or that he had been watching her. She’s not wayward or an outgoing girl.
“After the incident, his numbers were switched off and the Area Commander told me his whereabouts were unknown. Even when the Lagos State Domestic Violence Agency tried to reach him, his number was unreachable. We wrote petitions but there was no response,” Mrs Olupona stated.
Commenting on how survivors of sexual assault could be helped, a mental health expert at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Calabar, Dr Victor Essien, told our correspondent, “They may need time to heal from the horrible experience so it’s not something that has to be so prompt. This would involve collaborative efforts with the legal system because this is a medico-legal case.
“I would also encourage the victim to report to the law authorities so they can carry out appropriate investigations that may lead to the prosecution of the perpetrator.
“The victim may have flashbacks of the agonising event so therapies like cognitive behavioural therapy may come in handy. Every survivor is unique and the support they need may vary, so it’s important to respect people’s choices and provide a safe and non-judgemental environment for them to seek help and heal adequately.”
Public outrage
After Saturday PUNCH published the incident last week, many social media users expressed outrage at the case and the allegation that the police had attempted to cover it up.
An X (formerly Twitter) user, Tiaraoluwa @TheOluwabukunmi, wrote, “Lagos DSVA, this case must not be swept under the carpet, please. Officer Owolabi must be punished to the full extent of the law. I am so upset but so grateful that her mum isn’t letting them cover up the case like they want to. I can’t begin to imagine her trauma.”
Another X user, Osaji.i @ocgeorge stated, “So many are complicit in enabling the terrible dysfunction in our society and it’s always really disappointing. The culture of silencing the victims by asking them to be the bigger person after a grave injustice has been committed is crazy. We need a culture of consequences.”
“Every day you read something that happened in Nigeria and you think, surely that can’t be true. But yes, it’s true. A policeman raped a teenager in a police station. Like how confident and lawless do you have to be to rape someone in a place that should be about fighting crime?” an X user, Child of the World @Sucreciouz, queried.
Amidst the social media outrage, the Nigeria Police Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, on his X account wrote, “The Lagos State Command has waded into this and taken necessary steps. The command will speak to this tomorrow. I have asked the PPRO Ben Hundeyin to address it and make a press release on it. We shall get to the root of the matter.
“The Force Headquarters will do a follow-up on the case, too. We assure you all of justice. It goes beyond arrest. The command will still address the matter properly.”
On Monday, a popular blog revealed the full identity of the Superintendent of Police from his Facebook account. From a photo posted by the suspect on his 50th birthday in August 2017, his age was deduced.
By Thursday evening, hundreds of Facebook users had flooded Owolabi’s photo comment sections with their outrage and curses over the rape accusation against the native of Ikole-Ekiti, Ekiti State.