A 23-year-old National Diploma, ND, student of Mass Communication
Department, Ibarapa Polytechnic, yesterday, narrated how she was raped under a
tree by one of the security men attached to Operation Burst set up by Governor
Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State to check criminality in the state.
She said: “It happened on Friday, August 29, 2014. I was
coming back to my room after seeing off a friend. He accused me of being a
cultist for moving about around that time, but I denied it. He then ordered me
to climb his motorcycle, but I pleaded with him that he should let me go.
“He removed a knife and said that he would stab me if I
refused to obey him. So scared, I climbed the Okada and he took me to the
Operation Burst office in Eruwa.
“When we got there, he forcefully led me to a dark area
under a tree and ordered me to remove my dress to enable him see if I had
tattoos on my body.
“I told him I did not have tattoos and that he should let me
go. He then removed the knife again and said that he would slaughter me like a
ram if I failed to ‘cooperate’ and that I would be buried like many other girls
who had failed to cooperate in the past, and nobody would trace my death to
him.
“Sensing danger, I removed my clothes. He ordered me to lie
down under the tree and had sex with me several times while I was crying.
“He raped me till 3.30 am and I complained of catching cold.
He entered into the office and brought out a bottle of beer. He gave it to me
to hold for him.
“Later he said he was going to bring a blanket for me to
cover my body. I waited for about 30 minutes, but when he did not return, I
dressed up and ran away.”
The victim’s counsel, Mr. Adeosun, confirmed her story,
saying: “In the morning of Saturday, August 30, 2014, the victim called her
parents on the telephone and told them what happened.
It was the parents that
came to brief our office. We thereafter advised that the victim should report
to the Police Station at Eruwa, which she did.”
When the matter was reported to the security outfit, the
girl identified the rapist among other security operatives paraded before her.
To worsen her ordeal, the Eruwa General Hospital where she
went for test did not help matters.
According to her, on arrival in the hospital, the doctor she
met told her to buy hand gloves which she did.
She said: “The doctor told me to lie down and use his phone
torchlight to examine my private part and wrote a report that although there
was no trace of semen, the private part had been tampered with.”
It was gathered that the doctor claimed he could not carry
out test on the inner part of the vagina because the hospital did not have the
facilities to carry out such test.
The victim’s lawyer said a soldier called him at 8.25 pm on
Sunday informing him that the Army had commenced court martial trial on the
indicted soldier, but that the student must appear to testify.
*** This is so terrible, hope our justice sysstem rise up to this and uphold the law. She knows what she's saying.
Responding, Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Dr.
Festus Adedayo, quoted the security outfit as saying it had recommended the
suspect for disciplinary measure for abandoning his duty post.
In a statement issued by the outfit’s Second in Command, CSP
Elijah Bawa, “immediately the outfit was informed of the allegation of rape
against the said soldier, he dispatched an investigation team to Eruwa.
“The team met with the Divisional Police Officer for the
Eruwa Division, DSP Kayode Adigun who disclosed that the 23-year old Mass
Communication student of the school lodged a complaint with the command that
she had been raped by the soldier who was also an operative of the anti-crime
outfit.
“The outfit’s Second in Command and the DPO took the
complainant to the Eruwa General Hospital for medical examination, the result
of which they said proved negative.
“The soldier will, however, be charged for abandoning his
duty post in the night without permission against standing instructions in the
Operation Burst’s code of conduct,” he said.
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