UNILAG Gang Rape Saga: Victim Reaffirm Her Testimony

Justice Abiola Soladoye of a Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court, Ikeja has adjourned further hearing in the trial of five students of the University of Lagos, UNILAG, accused of serially gang-raping a fellow student till January 13, 2020.

Counsels to the defendants, Chuka Chukwu, Moboluwaji Omowole, Peace Nwankama, James Aguedu, and Josephine Osemeka, cross examine the rape victim.

They are charge with four-counts of defilement, permitting defilement, procuration and sexual assault.

While cross examine the victim, Counsel to Chuka Chukwu, a Senior Advocate, Mrs Abimbola Akeredolu told the court that the victim was not as naive as she claimed in court.

Questioning her social life, Mrs. Akeredolu inquired whether she had been to Oceanwaves or Eclipse nightclubs.

Responding, the victim said that she had been an entertainer half of her life and that she had not been to the Oceanwaves or Eclipse Nightclubs though she had heard of Oceanwaves Nightclub.

Countering the student, the Senior Advocate said that in 2017, the victim had launched a music track which was the period she claimed she was seventeen and naive.

Akeredolu proceeded to read aloud some of the lyrics of the song.

Some of the excerpts of the song read aloud in court are “I feel so lonely, so paralysed, got no guy to call my own, so when I saw the look in your eyes, I couldn’t help to fantasize.

“I feel somebody coming home, meaningful love with depth and potential, is what I need all the time.

“Just want you to be mine, so grab on my waist, let’s bust up the place. Anything that you do is fine, that’s why there is no need to be shy…”

After reading aloud the lyrics to the complainant’s song, Mrs. Akeredolu noted that they were not written by a naive person and proceeded to present to the complainant, five photographs in which the complainant was partially clad to identify.

After the complainant identified herself, the photographs were admitted by the court for identification purposes.

Earlier, while being cross-examined by Mr Adebisi Ademuwagun, the defence counsel to Omowole, the victim said that the first time she met Omowole was when he participated in gang-raping her.

“I got to meet him (Omowole) for the first time when he was part of the people that raped me in January 2017, he collected my telephone number by force.

“I got to see him subsequently at the UNILAG Sports Center. Due to the nature of the blackmail, I had to coverup and maintain a friendship with him so that people will not know what was going on so I visited him at the sports center.

“I was 17-years-old and very naive, I was scared of my dad, he is a disciplinarian and I was scared that he was going to overreact and I will get into a lot of trouble.

“Rumours were going around school and it was someone who got to know me and confronted me about the rumours that reported to the school authorities.

“The person who reported to the school authorities is not my boyfriend, he initially wanted to get cultists or people to beat them up but I told him no that I’m not that kind of person and he eventually reported the matter to the police,” she said.

Mr. Ademuwagun told the victim that Omowole never had sexual intercourse with her and that the police never took her and Omowole for medical examination.

“That is not true, he admitted having sex with me in front of the school counsellor, the police took both of us to the office of the Dean Students Affairs.

“We then went to the medical center but it had been a long time since the incident occurred. I still went to the Mirabel Center for my own medical report,” she said.

While being cross-examined by Mr O. C Aibangbee, the counsel to Nwankama, the third defendant and her former roommate, the victim said that it was Nwankama and Yinka Adegboyega who is now at large had lured her to be gang-raped.

“If Peace had not called me that day, I would have not known High Rise or met Yinka or James or any of the defendants.

“Peace introduced me to Yinka that is why I trusted him to speak to him when he and Peace told me to come to High Rise to hangout,” She said.

The victim however told the court that she had seen Adegboyega in school on two occasions when the case was under investigation and she denied being in contact with him.

During her cross-examination by Mr
O. C Fapohunda, counsel to Aguedo, the victim said that she never saw the video recordings of her being gang-raped by the defendants .

“I saw them when they were videoing me, I approached Yinka and I told him that there is a video going around school and he said they had deleted it.

“Everyone who confronted me told me that there was a video but I never saw the video. The police did not tell me that they recovered the video,” she said.

The complainant had on Feb. 26 testified that she was lured by Nwankama who was her roommate to High Rise, a staff quarters hostel at UNILAG.

She said she was gang-raped at High Rise by eight male students and sexually assaulted by Osemeka.

She alleged that the gang-rape and sexual assault at High Rise was video taped.

According to the victim, she was also blackmailed with the video and further gang-raped on other occasions by the defendants and their accomplices who are now at large.