Seven youths have been accused of raping a trader inside a plaza in
the Alaba Market, Lagos State.
Two of them, ─ Abeeb Busari, 22, and
18-year-old Lawal Gbolahan ─ who were nabbed and arraigned in court by
the police, have been remanded in custody by an Apapa Magistrate’s
Court.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the
police had launched a manhunt for the other fleeing offenders while the
arrested suspects have owned up to the crime.
The victim, 24-year-old Bola (pseudonym), sells fairly-used clothes in the area.
It was gathered that the woman was
hawking her wares around 4.30pm on May 27, when Busari, who works as a
bricklayer on a construction project at the market, summoned her under
the pretext of buying a jacket for which he agreed to pay N500.
He
reportedly told her to follow him to a room in a plaza at the market ─
where he had lodged ─ to collect the money for the item. Busari, it was
learnt, was acting on the order of one of his accomplices, identified as
Tunde, who reportedly orchestrated the crime to punish the victim for
an undisclosed offence.
Our correspondent was told that on
getting to the room, Busari shut the door and ordered the woman to sit,
while Gbolahan and the other five fugitives jumped down from the roof,
where they had hidden. They allegedly took turns to rape her.
After about 30 minutes, a welder, Idris
Lasisi, who reportedly saw the trader and Busari, traced her to the
plaza and barged into the room.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the suspects threatened him with a dagger when he attempted to raise the alarm.
Busari, who hails from the Ikorodu area
of the state, confessed to the crime, saying it was Tunde, one of the
fleeing suspects, who planned the act.
He said, “I was in the market on the
fateful day when I saw Bola hawking fairly-used clothes. I deceived her
that I wanted to buy a jacket and asked her to follow me upstairs to
collect the money. As soon as she entered my room, I locked the door.
Before then, my friend, Tunde had made arrangement with other five boys
to hide inside the ceiling.
“They jumped down as soon as she came
in. It was Tunde, who tore her panties and threatened her with a dagger.
Idris (Lasisi) forcefully entered while the act was on, but Tunde
threatened to stab him if he shouted. When we were done, I gave her N500
for the jacket, but Tunde collected it from her.”
In his statement, Gbolahan, who is also a
bricklayer, said he was in his house, located around the market when
Tunde invited him, adding that he was forced to rape the woman.
He said, “I was inside my own room, when
Tunde called me into the room, where Bola was kept. He told me she had
offended him once and he wanted to deal with her. He forced me to join
in gang-raping her.”
It was gathered that Lasisi eventually
managed to sneak out of the room while the men were immersed in the act
and alerted traders at the market, leading to Busari and Gbolahan’s
arrest by policemen from the Layeni Police Station.
They were subsequently arraigned before a chief magistrate, Mr. P.A. Adekomaya, on two counts of rape.
The charges read, “That you, Abeeb
Busari, Lawal Gbolahan, and five others now at large, on May 27, 2015,
at about 4.30pm, at Alaba New Market, Lagos, in the Apapa Magisterial
District, did conspire to commit felony to wit: rape.
“That you and five others at large on
the same date, time and place in the aforesaid magisterial district did
unlawfully and forcefully have the carnal knowledge of one Bola.”
The defendants pleaded guilty to the
charges, which according to a police prosecutor, ASP Olusoji Ojaokomo,
contravene sections 409 and 348 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State,
Nigeria, 2011.
Adekomaya ordered that the defendant be remanded in prison and adjourned the case till July 28, 2015.
Source: Punch Newspaper
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