The incident that would send Judith to the emergency ward, took place around 10pm on Sunday, 28 August at 106, Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, around Pako Bus Stop.
Judith’s aunty, a trader in the area, said the young woman had come to her stall around 9pm that day to collect some money.
“I told her to wait so we could pack up together later in the evening. She did. But around 9.30pm when I was still not ready, she said she would go home. She had been sick, so, I thought it was better. Some minutes after 10pm, I packed up and left,” the woman said.
But to her surprise when she got home, she was told Judith had not been seen since she left for the shop. The family quickly mounted a search for her in the neighbourhood. Her two brothers went in search of her on streets in the area and they did find her.
One of her brothers told Punch that when he found Judith, he could not believe his eyes.
“Her slippers were all torn, the dress she was wearing was heavy with blood. She was unsteady on her feet. She could hardly stand up,” he said.
A picture of Judith taken soon after she was found showed the ivory-coloured skirt she was wearing blotted with large patches of blood behind and in front.
His brother told Punch that when he became frantic and started asking what happened to her, she could hardly talk.
“She said some men r*ped her. Two men now came out of the front of the house where I found her. One asked me what I was shouting about. He said, ‘Because she was r*ped, is that why you will not let people ‘hear word’? Is she the first person that will be r*ped here?’ After all, I gave her Igbo (hemp) and she took it.’
“I was shocked. I could not believe that he had the confidence to tell me he was even the one who gave her Indian hemp. My sister said they forced her to take the Indian hemp and two of them r*ped her on a chair in front of a shop.”
Judith told her family that the men grabbed her as she crossed the expressway on her way home.
She said when they covered her mouth and dragged her to house number 106, which faces the expressway, they took her in and forced her to take Indian hemp three times before they r*ped her.
The two men who allegedly r*ped her were later identified as Wasiu and Monaco, the names they are popularly known by on the street, while the man who boasted of being the one who gave her the Indian hemp was identified as Olanrewaju Osinubi.
Wasiu and Monaco are currently on the run.
Judith’s brother explained that while he argued with the two men, who initially came out, other men came out of the house and joined them, threatening that if he did not leave with his sister, he would be beaten up.
He said, “While we were arguing there, I luckily saw a patrol van of policemen from the Dopemu Police Division passing by and I quickly approached them and explained how my sister was r*ped.
“The policemen came down from their vehicle and because the crowd of boys in front of the house were threatening, one of the policemen cocked his gun and they all fled.
“But, I immediately grabbed the one who said he gave her Indian hemp to smoke (Osinubi) before he could escape. The police took him and we all went to the station.”
While at the station, it was learnt that Judith continued to bleed heavily as everywhere she sat was soaked with blood.
The police asked the family to take her to the Mirabel S*xual Assault Referral Centre for treatment that night. But by the time they got there around 12.30am, the centre was close.
But officials at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, where the centre is located, referred them to the Ifako General Hospital, where s*xual assault cases are also treated.
After the initial treatment there, Judith was again referred to the Mirabel Centr
No comments:
Post a Comment