Rape survivor distressed as police chief screams ‘liar’ at her

Taiwo Jimoh

The parents of a 16-year-old rape survivor are considering abandoning their quest for justice after a female police boss at the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department (FCIID), Alagbon Close, Obalende, Lagos State, allegedly screamed, ‘liar’ at their daughter, while she was narrating her experience in the hands of her alleged violator.

The parents of the girl are also facing hostility and cold war in their community following their report of the sexual violation of their daughter at the Akodo Police State. The suspect, identified as Agbaje, is said to be very influential in the society.

The survivor’s mother, Temitope said some women and men in the community repeatedly harassed her and her survivor, by hurling insults and calling them names for daring to demand justice. These same groups of people had besieged her home and the hospital she took her daughter to for medical examination.

She and her husband, Abass, ran to Akodo Police Station, thinking they would get justice. The justice system also failed them there. In fact, a police officer, identified as Supol Segun, had allegedly urged Temitope to look for an “amicable settlement with the suspect.”

 

Before the couple knew what was happening, the suspect had written a petition to the FCIID, alleging that Abass, his wife and daughter were being economical with the truth.

Agbaje alleged that Abass couched his daughter to lie against him in order not to pay the loan he borrowed from him. It was at the FCIID that the real drama began. The couple and their daughter were detained and locked up.

Temitope recounted: “When our daughter was asked to narrate what transpired between her and Agbaje, she did. But in the middle of her narration, the woman police asking her questions, shouted at her, calling her a liar and other terrible names. She then ordered us to go for another medical examination at a hospital of her choice, which was the police hospital at Falomo.”

She further said: “At the hospital, no examination was carried out. However, we were given a medical result and asked to return to the FCIID. The police woman then ordered my husband to call someone to come and bail us. My husband called his sister, who bailed us with N40, 000. We were then asked to return the following week. When we came, she said our case file had been brought to her, and that according to the hospital report, nothing really happened to our daughter.”

The survivor said that the sexual violation on her by Agbaje still lingers in her memory.

The girl said: “I was returning from where my mother sent me when I saw him that night, and greeted him, but he didn't respond. I later noticed that someone was following me. Before I realised what was happening, a powder like substance was blew into my face and I became unconscious. But before I completely lost consciousness, I saw Agbaje. I can even identify the cloth he wore on that fateful day. When I woke up in a bush path in another community, there were bloodstains on me. I was crying.  An elderly woman walked up to me, asking why I was crying. After I narrated everything to her, she brought out a white cloth and wiped the bloodstains. She accompanied me to a certain point and told me to go home and not to tell anyone what happened. Before the incident, Agbaje had been nagging me to marry him. I told him I wouldn’t, and he said that if I didn’t marry him in peace, it would be by force.”

Temitope believed that the old woman, who wiped the blood off her daughter works for Agbaje. The woman, who had the bloodstain cloth had not been seen.  The incident was said to have happened in June 2020.  The case was first reported at Akodo Police Station, transferred to the State Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department (SCIID), Panti, Yaba and later moved to FCIID.

It was at the FCIID that the case took a new turn. According to Temitope, the suspect defiled her daughter at an uncompleted building in the community.

Temitope recalled initially pleading with her husband not to take the matter to the police.

She recalled: “I wanted to inform some elders in our church before taking any action. My husband accepted, but he went to the station to report the matter. He later apologised, explaining that he couldn’t stomach the thought of our daughter being violated. He reported at the Akodo Police Station.” 

When Abass got to Akodo Police Station, he was asked to return the following day to write his statement. He did.

Temitope stated: “Agbaje was invited to the station, but to our surprise, he said it was a frame-up by my husband, because he owed him and didn’t want to pay him. The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) then requested to see me. When I got there, the DPO had gone out to attend to another issue. We waited till nightfall. While at the station, one of the elders in the community pleaded with me to stop pursuing the matter, but I refused.”

Temitope added they were then asked to go home and return on Friday so as to be interviewed by the DPO. On the day of the appointment, some women in the community mobilised, marched to their house and started raining curses and insults on the survivor and her parents. Temitope said that she had to sneak her daughter out of the house and then both of them headed to the station.

She said: “When I got to the station, I met a policeman identified as Supol Segun, who also pleaded with me to settle the matter amicably. I then told him that my family and I were no longer safe in the community since the incident occurred. The policeman promised to talk to the Baale of the community, so that the matter could be resolved. Supol Segun told me that if the Baale couldn’t settle it, then police would try to settle it. It was at that point that I stood up and left the station. When I got home, I was shocked to see that the women were still there, with some of Agbaje’s boys. They again started hurling insults at us. Before then, the police had given us a referral letter to go to a hospital, for a medical examination of my daughter. After the result of the test was given, I returned to the police station. Supol Segun collected the result and asked my husband and I what we wanted out of the case. My husband said that he wanted the white cloth that was used to wipe the blood off our daughter.” 

The woman stated that it was when she and her husband noticed the unserious manner with which Akodo Police Station was handling the matter; they decided to transfer it to SCIID. Surprisingly, Akodo Police Station allegedly refused to transfer the case.

She said: “It was after a signal was sent to Akodo Police Station from SCIID that Agbaje ran away from the community for three weeks. Since then, the suspect had been using members of the Oodua People's Congress (OPC) and Policemen from Akodo Station to harass us.”

She recalled that one day; policemen from FCIID came and arrested her, Abass and their daughter.

She said: “I asked the policemen what were our offences, one of them named Amaechi said the person who ordered our arrest didn’t tell them. We were asked to write statements. After writing that, we were locked up. We were later taken to their boss’s office; she’s a woman. When Agbaje was asked to explain what happened, he told the woman that my husband and I wanted to kill him, and that we also lied that he raped our daughter. The woman asked my husband if truly he owed Agbaje and he said yes. My husband was told to pay the debt at the station. He promised, but also told them he didn’t have money with him at that moment.”

When Agbaje was contacted to react against the allegations levelled against him by the survivor and her parents, he declined comment, stressing that the matter was already at the FCIID.

When the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), Mr. Adekunle Ajisebutu was contacted, to ask about the facts of the case and the role played by Akodo Police Station and SCIID, he promised to get back to our correspondent, but as at the time of filing in this report, he was yet to do so. The spokesman of the FCIID, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Mr. Niyi Ogundeyi, when asked why the female police chief traumatised a rape survivor by calling her a liar; he replied that he was not aware of the matter.