Three men have allegedly gang-raped a 20-year-old woman in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria’s South-east.
An X user, (@PIDOMNIGERIA), in a series of post on Saturday, narrated how the survivor was raped by the suspects.
The suspects were identified simply as Ceder, Obinna and Divine.
How it happened
The X user said the survivor was raped between 18 and 19 November.
He said the suspects allegedly hacked into the WhatsApp account of the survivor’s friend through whom they lured her to a location.
According to the X user, the suspects seized the survivor’s phone, threatened to kill her if she failed to cooperate with them and then went on to rape her despite the fact she was menstruating at the time.
The survivor, according to the X post, got back home and confided in her unnamed male friend, who mobilised other young men to apprehend two of the suspects, Ceder and Obinna while the third suspect, Divine, escaped.
He said the unidentified young men later handed over the suspects to police in Imo State and would later find out that one of the suspects was detained and released by the police last month over another rape case.
The post did not identify the suspect who was released over a similar case.
“He has been arrested twice in the past over (separate) rape cases,” the X user said of the suspect who was released.
He claimed that while the suspect’s mother had been calling the survivor daily and pleading for her son to be forgiven, wife of the second suspect visited the police facility and “openly told the police to send her husband to prison” because he (the suspect) is “irresponsible.”
The X user said the survivor had gone to a hospital to run a test given that she was raped by the suspects without protection.
He expressed worry that the suspects could bribe the officers and get released from detention.
Police react
Reacting, the police spokesperson in Imo State, Henry Okoye, confirmed the incident in a post on his X handle on Sunday.
Mr Okoye, an assistant superintendent of police, said the police in the state had taken “necessary investigative steps in ensuring that the victim gets justice.”
“The (alleged) rapists will certainly be made to face the full weight of the law,” he assured.
The police spokesperson dropped his telephone number and asked the X user to call him.
Similarly, the Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, in a post on his X handle on Sunday, condemned the incident and assured that “the matter will never be swept under the carpet.”
Mr Adejobi, an assistant commissioner of police, said the Force had contacted the police in Imo State to do “the needful.”
“I will personally monitor it,” he said of the case, adding, “Rape and gender-based violence are barbaric, and we must do everything to curtail them.”
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