Matilda Omonaiye/
A 19-year-old female student of the University of Lagos (UNILAG) has told how she was serially gang-raped and blackmailed by eight male students on campus.
The student, who cannot be named, told an Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court on Tuesday how the fellow students raped and blackmailed her with a video recording of the assault.
She identified five of the alleged rapists as Moboluwaji Omowole, 19, Chuka Chukwu, 19, Peace Nwankama, 19, James Aguedu, 20 and Osemeka Josephine, 20.
The suspects were arraigned on a three-count charge of defilement of a child, permitting the defilement of a child in a premise and procuration before Justice Abiola Soladoye.
The students, who pleaded not guilty to the charge, have been remanded in Kirikiri prisons by the trial judge while others are allegedly on the run.
The lead state prosecutor, Mrs. K.A Momoh-Ayokambi, said the defendants alongside others committed the offences in January 2017 on the premises of UNILAG, Akoka, Yaba, in Lagos.
Led in evidence by Momoh-Ayokambi, the victim told the court that she became friends with Nwankama (the third defendant) who was her roommate when she moved into the school hostel at the inception of the 2016/2017 academic session.
She alleged that it was Nwankaba, who lured her to be gang-raped by the defendants.
She said that Nwankaba was one of the three friends she made while sharing the same room with her in the hostel.
She added that they were close to the extent that Nwankaba introduced her to her parents on their matriculation day held from January 13 to 17, 2017.
Narrating her ordeal, the victim said, “I had three roommates which included Peace Nwankaba, during the course of being in the room, Peace and I became friends, she even introduced me to her parents on our matriculation day between Jan. 13 to 17 2017.
“One day in the early afternoon around 12 pm, Peace called me on the phone and asked if I was around and asked if I wanted to hang with another boy called Yinka (now at large) at High Rise which is a staff quarters hostel at UNILAG.
“At the time I did not know what High Rise was. I told her and she said it was a hostel where people stay.
“I told her I was not sure that I will think about it, she cut the call and called me again within the space of five minutes but this time it was Yinka who was talking to me.
“He told me it was supposed to be a hang out and Peace will be there, at that point I agreed and since I didn’t know where High Rise was Yinka and Peace told me to meet them at Jaja Hall, a male hostel at UNILAG.
“When I got there I only met Yinka with James (fourth defendant). When I saw Yinka, I asked of Peace and he said she is at High Rise.”
She said when she got to High Rise, she was led to a small building behind High Rise where she met Seriki (now at large) and a group of boys but was assured by Yinka that Peace would come to the premises.
The rape victim further said: “James led me up a flight of stairs and we got into a room, there were boys outside the corridor because some of the boys who were downstairs had come upstairs.
“I entered the room with Seriki and James but Yinka stayed outside. When I entered the room, I met two boys and a girl; the boys included Emmanuel (at large). I cannot remember the name of the second boy and Josephine (the fifth defendant).
“When James and Seriki entered the room, Josephine and the two boys left and at this point it was clear to me that Peace was not in High Rise.
“Yinka then asked me to have sex with him, I said no but he continued forcefully persisting and removing my clothes at this point, two other people who were looking into the room entered the room and held me down while Yinka had forceful sex with me.
“In no particular order, the following took their turns – Daniel, James, Yinka, Bolu (first defendant), Seriki, Emmanuel and two other people who I don’t know their name. They were eight men.”
The victim added that following the alleged gang rape, she was subjected to further sexual assaults by the some of the defendants and their accomplices.
She said, “After they did that, they all came into the room including Josephine and they started playing music. Four people held me down and were touching me all around while Josephine was either kissing or dancing with one of them.
“At a point Josephine asked if she could kiss me while I was trying to fight off the people around. I was thinking of leaving but I was outnumbered and I didn’t know if those downstairs were part of them.
“Eventually Josephine kissed me and they made comments like it’s not that bad etc. When they were molesting me, there was a guy who was sitting down and video recording all that was happening on a phone.
“My first instinct was to get the phone from him but I thought I was outnumbered. At a point when they were leaving, they led me outside the building and they told me they had a video of what happened.
“They said if I don’t want to be popular in school, I have to answer them anytime they wanted to have sex. They collected my number and shared it among themselves.”
The victim said she did not know how to handle the situation and kept everything that happened to herself because she was scared she would get into a lot of trouble, because of the video and that her father would be very angry.
She added that she felt victimized and in bondage and that she gave Nwankaba her roommate the benefit of doubt thinking that she was unaware of what happened to her.
“I was still talking to Peace as I assumed she did not know what happened, I trusted her, she introduced me to her parents during matriculation and we were in the same room,” she said.
The victim further told the Court that a week or two after the alleged incident she was on more than two occasions subjected to more gang rapes and sexual assaults by the members of the group who now included Simi, Randy, Idowu and Eddy (who are all at large).
She alleged that some of the assaults and defilements occurred at Chukwu’s (second defendants) parent’s house at Pako area of Yaba.
She also told the Court that to add to her ordeal, rumors about the video tape began to make the rounds on the school premises.
She said, “I started hearing stories and the narrative was as though I wanted it. Henry a friend of Peace told me that I was popular at Jaja Hall and that there was a video and I wanted to get away from it.
“I had a friend (name withheld) who we both belonged to an organization in school. He liked me and he is the type to find out about everyone he likes when he heard about the story and video he asked questions.
“Unknown to me, he reported to the school authorities and on March 1, 2017, he told me to follow him to Ecobank to withdraw money but unknown to me, he wanted me to see the school counselor.
“The school counselor beckoned to me; I saw my bio-data in her hands; she asked me to follow her and at this point I knew who she was.
“I thought I was going to be expelled. She pulled out a form and asked me to state what happened and I told her everything, she told me the school was behind my back and she said they will be caught.”
She said the counselor asked her to lure Omowole (first defendant) to a place within the school premises where he was arrested, taken to the office of the Dean Student Affairs where he provided the names of the rest of his alleged accomplices.
The student said she was admitted at the UNILAG Medical Center for three days where the parents of the arrested students tried to persuade her to drop the case.
“From the Medical Center, I went home and stayed for three weeks. During that time, their parents were trying to bribe my family with between N3million to N5million.
“My family declined as my mother and brothers were very supportive,” she said.
The victim said that when she returned to school, the story was in the news and she was being harassed as a result.
She added, “A journalist posted the story on Nairaland and Linda Ikeji blog and one of the defendants created a fake account revealing my identity.
“My photo was also taken by some of Chukwu (second defendant) and one Eddy (at large) in the school premises.
“The people who raped and defiled me are in the same clique, they went to the same secondary school called ISL, I don’t know the full name of the secondary school.” Justice Sururat Soladoye adjourned the case until March 18 for cross-examination of the rape victim.
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