How DPO raped me in detention - Sales girl narrates her ordeal

A mother of two identified as Idowu Akinwunmi has accused a Divisional Police Officer in Lagos Island, SP Adekunle Awe, of raping her on Wednesday April 15th while in police custody after she was arrested by men of the Onikan Police station, Punch reports.

According to Idowu, she was arrested on Tuesday 14th April after her boss, Ms Idowu Pelumi had laid a complaint at the police station accusing her of bringing a male friend to her restaurant to pass the night. Narrating her story, Akinwunmi said;

"I work at an eatery on Keffi Street, Obalende, as a cook. The eatery also has a tailor’s shop in the compound and it belongs to the same person. There is also a quarters where we all live in the compound. Most of the workers are from Cotonou, Benin Republic. On Monday, a popular customer, known as Friday, came to eat. He later left, but some moments later, he returned to say he could not get a bus home. Friday had been making advances at me, but we were not a couple. I allowed him to sleep over."

When her boss found out that Friday had slept at her restaurant, she got the police to arrest both Idowu and Friday. And that was where her nightmare began. Dear Lagos State police commissioner, hope you will look into this matter. Continue...

"My madam called policemen to arrest all of us. I had only a pair of shorts, a shirt and a wrapper on. I had N11, 000 in my pocket and my phone was not with me. On getting to the station, I got the phone of a policewoman and used it to call one of the tailors to come and help. In the morning of Tuesday, two tailors, Ben and Matthias, arrived to bail out their friends, but they were also arrested, bringing our total number to six.”

The following day which was April 15th, she ran into the DPO of the police station after using the bathroom. DPO Awe asked her why she was arrested and after narrating what happened, Idowu claims he then invited her to his office...and had sex with her without using a condom

"Around 10pm on Tuesday, the DPO sent a policeman to call Friday and I. I was wearing boxers and a top. I stayed at the counter and Friday went in to see the DPO. A few minutes later, Friday came out and the DPO called me in. The DPO said he could make sure that I spent the rest of my life in jail, but I begged him. He then came close to me and started rubbing his hands all over my body but I rejected his advances. He said my boss had told him that he could do whatever he wanted to do with me. He said since I was from Benin Republic, if he killed me, nothing would happen. He said he would also make sure that the remaining five suspects would be sent to prison. At this point, the DPO had already taken off his clothes. Since I was afraid for my life, I allowed the DPO to have his way. I begged him to use a condom, but he refused. He pushed me to a smaller room in his office and put me on the bed and had sex with me. Immediately after he had finished, he told me to shower in a bathroom inside his office.” she said.

She said the next morning while she was about to leave, the DPO asked for her number but she refused to give it to him. She said the DPO promised that with the sex she already offered, she would not pay any bail but to her surprise, N30,000 was collected from her.

As soon as she left the police station, she went for a test at the Lagos Island Maternity clinic. A copy of the medical report, signed by one Dr. R. A. Seriki, stated,

“A complaint of sexual assault: General clinical condition satisfactory; no laceration, no bruises, no areas of hyperemia, negative for HIV 1 and 2, pregnancy negative. Has been placed on PEP and emergency contraception".

Meanwhile the Network on Police Reform in Nigeria has petitioned the National Human Rights Commission over the alleged rape of Akinwunmi. Mr. Okechukwu Nwagunma who is the Co-coordinator of NOPRIN says  they would follow the case to its logical conclusion with the view of getting Akinwunmi the justice she deserves. The case has now been forwarded to the office of the Commissioner for Police, Umar Tanko, who had a meeting with the accused DPO and Akinwunmi yesterday.