Habeeb Adisa (25), Kehinde Aderinoye (25) and Ilyas Ogundimu (27) – raped their 19-year-old neighbor in Iju, Lagos. The victim, a hair stylist, volunteered to speak with Saturday PUNCH. Hear her: “I became friends with them as neighbors 2 years ago when
we moved there. Kehinde began to make advances to me. But I rejected all.
Later he would tell Habeeb and Ilyas to approach me to appeal on his behalf but I still said no. But we still talked and sat together in the neighborhood as friends. In the morning of June 17, 2015, around 9.30am, I went over to Kehinde’s house like I usually did sometimes when less busy. I trusted them completely. Habeeb and Ilyas were there also. We were just talking when Habeeb suddenly came to me and picked me up.
He threw me on the bed and I told him that I didn’t like that kind of play. I said, ‘If this is part of your playful habit I am not up for it.’ Before I could stand up, he lay on me and pinned me down firmly. Kehinde quickly came over and started to remove my underwear. I struggled with them but they pinned me down and took turns to rape me.
When they finished, they told me to just forget what happened and keep it between the 4 of us. But I realized that if I was afraid of stigma and kept it to myself, they would walk free and even boast to their friends about what they did to me. They would surely do it to someone else” Someone she trusted and confided in advised her to the incident at Iju Police Station.
Some landlords in the area rose in the rapists defense because they are their children. They first threatened that if she decided to make the issue a police case, she’d lose. But on Thursday, after the police had made arrests, they all went to the police station to beg her mother. Her case highlights the increasing incidence of sexual offenses in Nigeria, with majority going unreported.
The spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, Kenneth Nwosu, said the suspects had been charged to court….. d rapist r now looking 4d senator, who sponsored d bill prescribing life jail for rapist, to beg her to withdraw d bill……
