When Mrs Lawal sent her 11-year-old grand-daughter (names withheld)
on an errand on November 29, 2015, to deliver okro to a customer, at Pure Water Bus Stop
along Lagos-Badagry Road, she did not envisage that
the girl would be ambushed not to talk of being raped.
The victim was ambushed on her way to the next street when
a 27-year-old bakery worker, identified as Sule, allegedly ambushed
her, dragged her to an uncompleted building and raped her.
It was
alleged that Sule then abandoned the little girl there. She regained
conscious and barely able to walk out of the uncompleted building when
she collapsed on a culvert near Adebola International School, along
palace road.
The suspect allegedly ran away after the rape, but
police officers from Morogbo Divisional Police Headquarters apprehended
him a week later.
Narrating her ordeal, the Primary 3 pupil told Vanguard newspaper
‘’After my grandma returned from the market that day, she sent me to
her customer who sells cooked food at the other street. She asked me to
supply her fresh okro which the customer had ordered for”.
‘’It
was while I was on my way there that uncle Sule, who works in a bakery
at Itoro area, called me. He said he wanted to buy okro for his wife. I
told him the okro was not for sale, and that my mother’s friend had
ordered for it. He said I should follow him, but I refused. All of a
sudden, he grabbed me and dragged me to an uncompleted building. When I
tried to shout, he used his hand to cover my mouth. As I tried to
struggle, he tore my clothes and removed my pants. He also used his
nails to injure my back as I attempted to escape, he over powered me and
raped me.””
Mrs Lawal, the grandma, also gave her perspective of
the incident. She stated: “After waiting for about 30 minutes for her
to come back from the errand, I started looking for her because the
place where she was supposed to take the okro to was the next street,
less than 10 minutes’ walk. It was around 2pm that I asked her to go and
give the okro to my customer who placed the order. After waiting for
her to come, I started looking for her before an Okada man came to alert
me that they had found my grand-daughter at about 2:30pm, and that she
was lying unconscious on a culvert close to Adebola School. When I got
there, onlookers had gathered at the scene. I was pained at what I saw;
my little girl soaked in her own blood, her clothes torn. It was obvious
she had been raped, as she was bleeding profusely, but because she was
unconscious we didn’t know who was responsible. Immediately, I called my
husband and he asked me to report the case to the police. When we got
to Morogbo Police Station, they gave us police report and referred us to
the General Hospital, Badagry.’’
She continued: “A doctor’s
report from the hospital confirmed that my grand child was raped, as she
had deep cuts and severe injuries inflicted on her virginal which
caused the bleeding. The doctor stated that because of complications
arising from the rape, her womb had been affected and that she needed
urgent surgery. So they referred us to Igando General Hospital, along
Iba -LASU road where they said they had the facility to handle her
case.”’
Also speaking on the incident, Mr Lawal, the grandfather
of the victim, said, “I was not at home when my wife called me that
something terrible had happened.
Immediately, I asked her to go the police station to report the case. I met her at Morogbo Divisional Police Station.
“From
Badagry General Hospital, I had to charter a cab that took us to Igando
General Hospital, but because of traffic, we did not get to Igando
until around 11pm and, by 12 midnight, she was in the theater because of
the serious nature of her case. She was on admission from that day till
Sunday when she was discharged.
‘’All we want is for justice to
be done. Sincerely, we don’t know the effect of this rape on this little
girl. We don’t know if the rapist did it for ritual purposes. We want
justice because we don’t know the outcome of this. Already, we have
spent about N150, 000 on the treatment and surgery she underwent.
Currently, the police at Panti are demanding money to continue the
prosecution of the case. One of them asked for N20, 000.”
It was
gathered that the case was transferred from Morogbo to Lagos State
Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Yaba, Panti, for
further investigation and the girl’s torn clothes stained with blood are
being used as exhibits.
It was gathered that the victim, who is
the first child of her mother, has been living with her grandparents
since she was six years old.