Suspect accuses police of tagging her prostitute, demanding N100, 000

Juliana Francis

A mini drama is playing out in the Lagos State Police Command. The actors in this drama include an alleged suspect identified as Kelechi Joseph and a complainant, called Gabriel Uzoma Aguasim.

In the middle of this drama is the Ipaja Police Station. Kelechi, the suspect, had accused policemen at Ipaja Police Station of demanding N100,000 bail, tagging her a prostitute, detaining her for four days, thus infringing on her fundamental human rights, forcing her to sweep and mop the police station for four days, and then mandating her to pay the complainant N1million.

The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Ipaja Police Station has denied all the allegations levelled against her and her policemen.

Kelechi had accused Gabriel and his cronies of luring her to Westwood Hotel located at Badore, Lekki/Ajah area of Lagos State, under the guise of auditioning for a comedian skit, and then attempted to rape her. She literally had to pay her away out of their clutches and then fled from the hotel.

Rather than report the attempted rape to the police, Kelechi contacted a former classmate, who is now a naval cadet.

The cadet was not in Lagos, but he alerted another cadet, based in Lagos and urged him to look into the matter for him.

The cadet in Lagos decided to visit Gabriel and question him about the attempt to rape Kelechi. However, on the day he was heading out, he decided to go with three other cadets.

According to Kelechi, when they got to Gabriel’s home, he was not around, but his friend allegedly handed over a camcorder and laptop to the cadets, telling them that the items would ensure that Gabriel comes to look for them and then they could interrogate him about his attempted rape of Kelechi.

When Gabriel finally surfaced, he told everyone that Kelechi was his lover and that there was no way he could have attempted to rape her.  This was even as he alleged her of coming to his home with the cadets to steal his four laptops, money, beat his buddies and then damaged his Plasma Television.

The matter started in March, 2021, and since then, it has been dragged to the Ipaja Police Station, moved to human rights activists and presently at the State Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department (SCIID), Panti, Yaba, Lagos. Detectives at the SCIID are now battling to unravel the truth.

Kelechi said her ordeal started in March after one Mr. Segunmufu, connected her to Gabriel and his friend, Okora. The men were carrying out auditions, looking for females that would shoot a skit with them. When she got to the venue, they attempted to rape.

She said: “When I entered the lobby, I saw ladies.  I actually sat down for a while and then I was called to come and get my costume and start my audition. It was when I entered the hotel room I realise it was a ploy to rape me.”

Kelechi pleaded with the guy, later identified as Gabriel, not to rape her. “He said that all the girls downstairs had been to the room and had done it.”

While still pleading with him, she quickly called Gabriel’s friend, Okora, who was the link between them.

When Okora got upstairs, he allegedly locked the door and told her, “If I didn’t behave myself, he would join Gabriel to rape me. He slapped me and I started screaming for help.”

According to her, they collected her phone from her and hit her again and she ran to the toilet. She couldn’t lock the door; she held the handle and continued to shout.

“Gabriel told me that if I shouted till tomorrow, nobody would come to my rescue, that people would think my role in the skit was to shout,” recalled Kelechi. “Okora shouted at me to stop shouting and crying and then he hit me again and pushed me against the wall. I was so scared that I urinated on my body. They got irritated and asked me to refund money used in booking the hotel room.”

They said the hotel room was booked for N10, 500. They searched her bag and collected her N4, 500 and then made her transfer N5000 to Gabriel.

The following day, she called her cadet friend and narrated everything. She said: “The idea was for them to warn Gabriel to stop threatening me. My classmate’s friend came with three other guys. He said that he came with them because he didn’t want Gabriel and his brothers to mob him.”

They were told that Gabriel was then in the EFCC’s custody. Kelechi said that one of the guys in the house, whom everyone used to think was Gabriel’s brother, was the person that handed the camcorder and laptop to the cadets without being asked. She said: “He told them that Gabriel might run away if he heard they came to look for him. He convinced them to go with the two systems and a camera. He said that Gabriel would definitely come for the items.”

Kelechi stated that for weeks, she kept calling the cadets, to know if Gabriel had surfaced, but they said no.

Two months later, Gabriel brought policemen from Ipaja Police Station to arrest her. She was arrested for stealing.

She said: “Gabriel alleged that I stole his two systems, camera and N200, 000 from his house, and that the cadets beat up his friends. He also claimed that we broke his television and other things in his house. One of the policemen called me aside and told me that if I had some money, they could change the case to rape. I told him that I needed to call my parents.”

Later, she was taken to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), who interviewed her and Gabriel. The Investigating Police Officer (IPO) that handled her case was Mr. Ayeni.

When the matter was taken before the DPO, Gabriel claimed that Kelechi was his girlfriend. The DPO ordered that both suspect and complainant should be detained.

Kelechi alleged that she was detained for four days because she couldn’t come up with the bail money the police demanded.

She alleged that the IPO demanded N100, 000 for bail and also asked her to pay Gabriel over a million naira for the items she ‘stole’ from his apartment.

She said that on the third day, her mom came to the station. The mom told the Station Officer (SO) that she needed to speak with the DPO. “I didn’t know what transpired between my mom and the DPO, but I heard the DPO shouting at her to get out. The next day, which was the fourth day, my mom came back and I asked what happened between her and the DPO, she said the DPO told her to pay N100,000 for my bail and she told her she didn’t have that kind of money. The DPO shouted at her to get out, that she was not ready to bail me. The DPO called my mom, ‘mother of a harlot.’ The SO also called me a prostitute! I was made to sweep and mop the police station every day.”

Kelechi said that her mom eventually paid N25, 000 for her bail to the SO. She said that in those four days, she was not allowed to bathe.

Kelechi said: “We repeatedly tried to contact the cadets, to return those items, but we didn’t succeed. I asked the police to investigate the fact that I was tricked to a hotel, beaten and almost raped. But they said it was not their business, that if I had sense, I would have reported Gabriel, and that their aim was to satisfy their complainant. The police said that I should come and write how I would be paying N200, 000 per month to Gabriel until it completes N1million.”

Attempts made to get Gabriel on his phone line were abortive as his phone was switched off. Our reporter gathered that he has been arrested and detained by detectives at the State Criminal Intelligence and Investigative Department (SCIID), Panti, Yaba, over the same case.

He had, however, earlier spoken with P.M.EXPRESS, an online medium, where he alleged that Kelechi was his lover, who wanted to live with him, but he had turned down the suggestion. He said she pleaded with him to engage her in his comedy skit, which he accepted.

On the day of the show, he alleged that Kelechi came late and he had to give her role to someone else. This, he claimed, led to serious disagreement between them.

The DPO said: “It’s a clear case of armed robbery. The girl took soldiers to the boy’s house. The boy reported the matter to the police. They took items from the house at gunpoint and the girl made a statement to that effect. We arrested the girl at Ajah and brought her here. She said that the boy molested her; I then detained both of them. The boy then said he couldn’t have molested her because they live together. I asked both of them to bring a witness, the boy brought, she didn’t. I decided to charge her to court because the evidence was against her. Unfortunately, the court went on strike. The matter has been transferred to the SCIID.”    The drama continues.