A 31-year-old cook, Idowu Akinwunmi, has accused the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Onikan Station in Lagos, SP Adekunle Awe, allegedly raped, extorted and threatened her life.
The victim narrated to our correspondent on Thursday that the incident occurred on April 15, 2014, a day after she was arrested by the police for “spurious” reasons.
Akinwunmi said she works 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.
She said that most of the workers in the eatery are from Cotonou, Benin Republic and that on Monday, a popular customer, known as Friday, came to eat and later left, but returned some moments later claiming 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,” she admitted though, adding that around 1am, her boss, who discovered that someone was sleeping over, called the police to arrest her and Friday as well as two other persons that slept over at the tailors’ quarters.
“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 victim said a few hours later, she felt sticky and pleaded with a policewoman on duty to allow her have a bath but said she could not use the shower because it was too filthy, adding that on her way out, she met the DPO for the first time.
“I met the DPO along the corridor and he asked me what happened and I explained everything to him. 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.
Akinwunmi said the DPO threatened her that he would also make sure that the remaining five suspects would be sent to prison, adding that at that point, the DPO had already taken off his clothes and “Since 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 that the DPO promised to ensure that she was released the next morning and ordered a policeman to take her back into the cell. She claimed that when she returned to the cell, she cried through the night and that the following morning, she told some female police officers about the incident.
She said when her people came to bail her from the station, the DPO asked one Inspector Taiwo to bring her to his office.
“The DPO gave me his telephone number and asked for mine, but I didn’t give it to him. He then said I could leave and promised that no one would collect bail money from us. However, on getting to the counter, the policemen on duty collected N30, 000 from us,” she said.
The matter was said to have been reported at the Area A Police Command, Lion Building, after which the Area Commander, ACP Imohimi Edgal, invited the victim for interrogation and the matter has now been transferred to the office of the Commissioner of Police.
Dr. Josephine Effah-Chukwumah, the Director, Project Alert on Violence Against Women, in a chat with our correspondent urged the police to handle the matter seriously. “The fact that there were no bruises does not mean that rape did not occur. The moment there is a direct threat to life on the condition of sex, the offence is rape. It is unacceptable.”
The Network on Police Reform in Nigeria has petitioned the National Human Rights Commission over the alleged rape of Akinwunmi. The petition, dated April 16 2014 and signed by NOPRIN’s National Coordinator, Okechukwu Nwagunma, is said to be receiving the attention of the Police Service Commission had received copies of the petition even as the Lagos Office of the NHRC had been directed to investigate the complaint.
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