Detectives attached to the State Criminal Investigations Department
(SCID), Panti, Yaba, Lagos State, have arrested a man who allegedly beat
up one of the female teachers in his children’s school for shunning his
love advances. The man, Kazeem, 45, a father of four, was said to have
pounced on the female teacher (names withheld) when she went to deliver a
message to him from the school authority. The pretty teacher is the
wife of a top immigration officer.
Recounting the incident to her
mother and sister, the teacher, who was rushed to Elegbeleye Specialist
Hospital, Ikosi Ketu said she was attacked at Kingsley Ahmed Hotel,
Apaola Crescent, Ikosi Ketu, on November 27, 2015, at about 5pm. The
suspect was described as one of the distinguished and respected parents
of Sinclair Louis Primary and Secondary Schools, Agility, Mile 12 Lagos
State. The matter was reported by the victim’s sister, Onome Owumi at
Ketu Police Station and Kazeem was picked.
The victim, who is
33-year-old, is the Human Resources (HR) Officer of Sinclair Louis
Schools. She was sent to deliver a message to Kazeem by the headmistress
of the school, but the suspect attempted To Molest her, after tricking
her to meet him at the hotel. The victim’s sister, Owumi, a nursery
school teacher, said Kazeem had always been interested in dating her
younger sister.
According to Owumi, Kazeem used to inundate the
victim’s phone with love messages. Owumi said: “My sister is married.
She told him every time he wooed her that she was married. He however
refused to listen to her. He continued to send her love messages.”
Narrating how the incident occurred, Owumi said: “On the fateful day, at
about 4pm, my sister was sent to Kazeem by Mrs. Alawiye, the
headmistress of the school. My sister is the HR of the school.
Part
of her job is to speak with parents and persuade them to pay up their
debts. Kazeem, being one of the well-respected parents in the school,
was told that my sister would be coming to his office at Tipper Garage
to speak with him on the debts he owed the school, since examination
would soon start. “When she got to his office, he wasn’t there. She
called his phone. He said he had just left the office and was at
Aladelola Street, Ikosi.
My sister was annoyed and he immediately
apologised. When she got to the place, she saw the man at the balcony
of a house. She didn’t know it was a hotel. There was no sign to
indicate the place was a hotel. He asked her to come upstairs. On
getting there, she didn’t see him. She called out his name. He answered
from a room.
My sister followed the sound of his voice. She found
him inside a room. He was sitting on the bed. Innocently, she walked
into the room. “After talking to him and showing him the necessary ways
to go about paying up the debts, she stood up to leave.
On her
way out, Kazeem held her hands. He told her that he wanted to speak with
her. He said he liked her and would like to have sex with her. But my
sister said that she couldn’t. She told him that she was already late
for a church vigil.” Owumi said that Kazeem stood up, dashed to the door
and locked it.
Although the lady was shocked at his behaviour,
she attempted to explain to him that she couldn’t have sex with him
because it was a taboo in her tradition. She told him that if she had
sex with him, and later had sex with her husband, her husband would die.
Owumi said that rather than listen to the lady’s explanations, Kazeem
suddenly pushed her into the bed and pounced. As she struggled with him,
he rained punches on her. He tore off her clothes and started touching
her breasts.
The lady screamed and Kazeem allegedly tried to
suffocate her with a pillow. Owumi said: “She grabbed his manhood when
he tried To Molest her, but he bit her on the neck.
As the struggle
continued, she got weaker. Weary, she told him that she had accepted to
have sex with him. She however said that she was fasting. She told him
that she needed food to break her fast. He went out to get food, but
padlocked the door. She quickly sent a text message to the headmistress
and her husband that Kazeem was about To Molest her. She had already
seen a sticker in the room that showed the name of the hotel.”
The
headmistress however called when Kazeem had returned with the food. He
asked his prey to pick the call and tell the caller that she was at
Ibadan. It was later discovered that headmistress transferred the
message to the principal of Sinclair Louis Schools. The principal
forwarded it to the victim’s mother.
The woman received the
message while she was in the church and immediately left in search of
her daughter. The headmistress, Mrs. Alawiye, said that she never knew
that the suspect could degenerate to the level of attempting To Molest
another man’s wife. Mrs. Alawiye said: “I told the lady (HR officer) to
speak with Mr. Kazeem about the debts his children owed the school.
He
has four children in our school and they were all sent home over debts.
The money they owed the school was N108, 400. Since the exams would
start on Monday, I told the HR to call their father and speak with him. I
had no idea such a grave crime would occur.
“I saw a message
sent earlier by the HR that she was in trouble. I called her immediately
and she answered telling me all was well. I didn’t know she was under
threat. I went home thereafter and then later forwarded the message to
the principal to let him know about the message. It was the next day I
got to hear the full story.
But I’m grateful that the HR was not
raped, only, beaten and injured.” The manager of Kingsley Ahmed Hotel,
where the incident occurred, introduced himself simply as Mr. Wale. He
said that he was not aware of the incident until some policemen came to
the hotel on investigation.
Wale recounted: “I know the lady. In
fact, I’m a family friend. I know her mother because she sells frozen
foods at Mile12. I was once a manager at a hotel in Mile 12. I didn’t
even know she was the one until the police came searching. I was in my
office. I had earlier gone to the bank and just returned.
I had
no idea that the lady, whom Mr. Kazeem said would come to visit him had
arrived. “We didn’t hear shouting. At about 2am, the police arrived at
the hotel with the lady’s family. They said that there was a kidnap case
in the hotel. I was shocked. I immediately took our bunch of keys and
we proceeded in opening all the rooms. When we got to room 15, we
knocked, but there was no answer. “At the second knock, the lady in the
room shouted.
The policemen on hearing her shout immediately
broke down the door. The man was Unclad, while the lady was with a bed
sheet wrapped around her body.
The man wanted to run out, but the
policemen pushed him back. “He was arrested and we all went to Ketu
Police Station. All through the questionings, the lady insisted that he
didn’t rape her, but only beat her up because she refused him sex. The
man on the other hand, insisted that the lady was his girlfriend.”
The
victim’s husband said he didn’t want his wife to speak with journalists
or the matter to be in the papers. The suspect was arraigned on a three
count charge at the Ogudu Magistrates Court, on December 1, 2015. Bail
was given in the sum of N200, 000, with three sureties. Kazeem couldn’t
meet the bail conditions and remanded in Ikoyi Prison.