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A 17-year-old Lagos resident has narrated the sordid details of her rape experience in the hands of a police officer (name withheld) attached to the Ogudu Police Station in the Ojota area of the state.
As reported by The Punch, the lady, whose name was kept under wraps to protect her identity, became a victim of violent sexual assault while trying to recover her stolen phone.
Her ordeal started when some traffic robbers, popularly referred to as 'one chance,' dispossessed her of the phone while she, alongside her siblings and grandmother, was returning from Ikeja.
Meanwhile, the accused police officer reportedly got wind of the matter when the teenager was recounting her robbery experience to her mother at the latter's shop.
Police officer goes rogue
Subsequently, the officer voluntarily offered to help her track the missing phone and take her statement.
“On June 29, officer Owolabi called my mum on her phone and told her he had arrested the person with my phone and my mum should send me to his police station and I went there. On getting there, I was told they made a mistake with the tracking, and that the person caught wasn’t the one with my phone," the victim told the platform.
However, things took an ugly turn shortly afterwards as the police officer allegedly started making unwelcome sexual advances towards the teenager.
“The officer sent his personal assistant to call me into his office and he showed me directions there. When I entered his office and greeted him, he replied and got up to lock the door and put the key in his pocket. I shouted, ‘Sir, why did you lock the door?’
“He started trying to pull my clothes off and I shouted, then he brought out a gun, cocked it, and threatened to shoot me if I shouted. Then he began harassing me and when I struggled with him he hit me on the back of my head with the gun and raped me.
“I saw his phone ringing and the caller was my mum, but he told me since I didn’t have a phone with me, I should tell her I didn’t get to his office and from now on I should be reporting at his office by 12 pm every day during school break or while returning from school that he had been watching me for two years and now I just fell into his trap,” the distraught victim told our correspondent.
Victim's mother confirms allegation
The victim's mother, identified as Mrs Aramide Olupona, has confirmed the allegation while also accusing the police of trying to cover up the incident.
Olupona told The Punch that her daughter began bleeding a day following the assault and was taken to the Mirabel Centre, adding that the incident was also reported to the authorities.
“The suspect’s wife and the rest of his family have come to my shop to plead with me saying he would soon retire, but what about my daughter that was raped? Is it because I am a poor woman?
“The Area Commander of the station too invited me and pleaded with me to bury the case, now they are saying the suspect has fled and his whereabouts are unknown, but my daughter is distraught and has said she wants to commit suicide. My girl needs justice,” the victim's mother was quoted to have said.
Police say allegation under investigation
Reacting to the incident when contacted by the platform, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, denied an attempt to cover up the allegation.
“The CP immediately directed the Gender Unit to commence an investigation and that is underway. There is no plan to cover up the allegation,” Hundeyin said.