Eight boys raped, blackmailed me, says UNILAG student

John Chikezie 

An Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court yesterday remanded five students of the University of Lagos (Unilag) for  allegedly assaulting and gang raping a 19-year-old student (name withheld) of the institution 

The students identified as-  Moboluwaji Omowole, 19, Chuka Chukwu, 19, Peace Nwankama, 19, James Aguedu, 20 and Osemeka Josephine, 20, were docked on a three court charge defilement and procuration. 

According to the State prosecutor, Mrs K.A Momoh-Ayokambi, the accused person and others large, committed the offences in January 2017 at the premises of Unilag, Akoka, Yaba, Lagos. 

"Omowole and another individual who is now at large defiled the complainant (name withheld) by having unlawful sexual intercourse with her. 

"Chukwu, at his premises located at No. 25, Shobande St., Akoka, Yaba, Lagos knowingly allowed Omowole and the other individual who is still at large to defile the complainant. 

"Nwankama, Aguedo and Osemeka between January 2017 to March 2017 were into procuration of underage girls for the purpose of defilement," Momoh-Ayokambi said. 

However, after their arraignment, the victim, who was led in evidence by the prosecutor, narrated how her roommate lured her into a room where she was gang-raped by eight male students and constantly blackmailed with a video recording incident. 

According to the victim, she became friends with Nwankama (the 3rd defendant) who was her roommate when she moved into school hostel at the 2016/2017 academic session. 

She told the court that Nwankama, her friend and roommate lured her into the gang rape by her friends. 

"I had three roommates which included Peace Nwankama, 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 12pm, 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 will come to the premises. 

She continued: "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 qms James but Yinka stayed outside, when I entered the room I met two boys and a girl the boys are- 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. 

"After that, the others took their turns - Daniel, James, Yinka, Bolu (first defendant), Seriki, Emmanuel and two other people who I don't know their names. They were eight men."

"After they did that, they all came into the room including Josephine and started playing music, four people held me down and were touching me all around while Josephine was either kissing one of them or dancing with another. 

"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 its not that bad etc. While they were assaulting me, a guy was just sitting down and video recording all that was happening on his phone. 

"My first instinct was to get the phone from him but I considered the number surrounding me. 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," she said. 

The victim said that after what happened, she couldn't tell anyone especially because of the stigma she would receive should the video recording be leaked. 

"But a week after the incident I was on more than two occasions subjected to more gang rape and sexaul assault by the same members of the group who now included Simi, Randy, Idowu and Eddy (who are all at large). 

"Sometimes they would rape and assault me at Chukwu's (second defendants) parent's house Pako area of Yaba. 

"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 the 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 Mar.  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. 

"I thought I was going to be expelled, but the school counselor gave me 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. 

"I was later admitted at Unilag Medical Center for three weeks and 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. 

"I returned to school, the story was in the news and a journalist even posted the story on Nairaland and Linda Ikeji blog and one of the defendants created a fake account revealing my identity," she said 

Justice Sururat Soladoye thereafter adjourned the matter till March 18 for cross-examination while remanding the defendants in Kirikiri Maximum Prison.