Wednesday, June 17, 2015 will forever be unforgettable to 19-year-old Adenike who was raped by three of her neigbourhood friends in the Iju area of Lagos.
A angered and pained hairstylist related how her three friends – Habeeb Adisa (25), Kehinde Aderinoye (25) and Ilyas Ogundimu (27) forcefully had carnal knowledge of her with a well hatched plan. The victim made it known that she could have allowed the shocking incident to go just like that but she did not want any other girl to fall prey into the hands of these young men who disguised as her friends for two years just to rape hern.
Talking to The Punch about the shocking incident, Adenike said:
“I became friends with them as neighbours two years ago when my mother first rented an apartment in the area. “Kehinde began to make advances to me. But I told him we were friends and did not want to be in a relationship with him. I have always rejected his advances.
“Later he would tell Habeeb and Ilyas to approach me to appeal on his behalf to accept his proposal, but I made them to understand that I could not go out with him. But we still talked and sat together in the neighbourhood as friends.“In the morning of that day, around 9.30am, I went over Kehinde’s house like I usually did sometimes when I had nothing to do at home. I trusted them completely and usually went there to while away the time.
“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.’
“But as he threw me on the bed, before I could stand up, he lay on me and pinned me down firmly. Kehinde quickly came over and started to remove my underwear. That was when I knew what they wanted to do. I struggled with them but they pinned me down and took turns to rape me.
“When I was screaming, one of them quickly went to the CD player, which was on at the time and turned on the music to maximum volume so that it would drown out my voice.”
“They told me to just forget what happened and keep it between the four of us. But I realised 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.”
Although Adenike could not take the shame that came with the sad incident, she put herself together and approached someone she trusted in the neighborhood to confide in the person. She was immediately advised to go to the Iju Police Division to report the incident.
When she reported the case at the police station, many landlords in the area rose in defence of the three young men who raped her, as the three young men are sons of landlords. The landlords were said to have threatened Adenike’s mother, saying she will lose the case.
However when the landlords saw how serious the matter was being taken, they decided to simmer down and plead on behalf of the young men. The Lagos police spokesman, Kenneth Nwosu, however said that the suspects have been charged to court.
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