Olaleye Aluko
An 18-year-old girl has been ambushed and gang-raped by six gun-wielding men in the Somolu area of Lagos State.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the victim, Blessing (pseudonym), was returning from a visit to an uncle’s house at about 8pm on Saturday when she was attacked by the hoodlums, suspected to be cultists, on Olaosebikan Street, Bajulaiye, in the Somolu area.
Our correspondent gathered that the teenager, who was with the suspected rapists for about four hours, was threatened with a gun to “cooperate” with her assailants.
It was learnt that Blessing was taken for medical treatment at the Mirabel Centre, Ikeja, after which the matter was reported at the Alade Police Division.
It was, however, gathered that the suspected rapists fled the area before the police could arrest them.
When PUNCH Metro visited Blessing in her parents’ house, the victim, who worked as a computer operator, said the men raped her after they had accused her of being a lover to a member of a rival cult group.
Blessing, who said she had been asked out by some of the suspected rapists on several occasions without positive response from her, added that they took advantage of the fact that the area was deserted on Saturday.
She said, “It was at about 8pm on Saturday. I was returning from a visit when the guys surrounded me around Olaosebikan Street. They carried me into an apartment called Elewure’s House around Bajulaiye Compound.
“They forced me into a room in the house and took turns to rape me. They were six in number, but I know five of them. They are Raheem, Oriyomi, Sulaimon, Dudu, Orobo and Ronaldo. As each of them raped me, one of them pressed a gun against me, saying if I did not cooperate, they would kill me.
“I was with them till around 12am. Two of them walked me to a street near where I lived. I was tired.
“On the second day, I went to the Alade Police Division to make a report, and I was also taken to the Mirabel Centre in Ikeja for medical treatment.
“The hoodlums claimed that I was dating a cultist. They said they had asked me several times to date them but I refused. They said they would teach me a lesson. I want the police to arrest these men. I cannot go to work for now.”
When our correspondent visited Olaosebikan Street, it was gathered that one of the six hoodlums, known as Makayoko, returned from the Kirikiri Prison last year after serving an eight-year jail term for violence.
A security official in the area, who identified himself only as Comrade, told PUNCH Metro that the Elewure boys belonged to the Eiye cult group.
He added that each of them had a gun and robbed passersby, especially women, in the evenings.
He said, “There was an uncompleted building on Olaosebikan Street where they used to hide their weapons, and take women to rape them. Later, when the house was completed, they started using the Elewure’s House. They also terrorise Olatunde, Humani and Akinrinlo streets.
“On Tuesday, the Divisional Police Officer of Alade came to the Bajulaiye Compound to hold a meeting with the residents on how these hoodlums would be apprehended. It was decided at that meeting that we would hand them over to the police, anywhere we saw them. One of the policemen told me that the suspects raped the girl two rounds each.
“It was very serious. But we are going to work with the police to get them.”
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Joe Offor, confirmed the gang rape, adding that the police were intensifying efforts to apprehend the suspects.
He said, “We are on the trail of the suspects. We have not arrested any of them for now, but we will get them.”
Copyright PUNCH.
