Robbers hijack luxury bus, rape students
: Monday, April 02, 2012
By OUR REPORTERS
Armed robbers at the weekend hijacked a luxury bus near Ijebu-Ode area of Ogun State raping secondary school students who were coming home for the Easter holiday. The bus was coming from Enugu to Lagos, but waylaid by the robbers, who barricaded the road about 11.30p.m. on Saturday
The bus was hired by a Catholic secondary school (name withheld) to convey the students to Lagos. Daily Sun gathered that the bus the students originally boarded left Enugu at about 7.30am but broke down on the road and another was sent to pick up the passengers.
It was gathered that the new bus was not also in good order and broke down several times on the way. A passenger, who simply identified herself as Franca, said at Ore in Ondo State, the passengers appealed to the driver to stop as it was already night but the driver was adamant, preferring to continue with the journey. Franca said somewhere near Ijebu Ode, some hoodlums barricaded the road and the driver was forced to stop.
She said the robbers, who were armed with sophisticated weapons, ordered the passengers who were mostly female students into the bush and had field day raping them.
She said the robbers, no fewer than 20, did not stop at raping the females but also dispossessed them of money, phones and other personal effects. She revealed that two girls suffered worse fate as most of the robbers who identified the two girls as virgins had round s of sex with them.
Relatives of the victims yesterday stormed the head office of the transport company at the Jibowu area of Yaba Lagos protesting what they termed negligence on the part of the company. The relatives, who vowed to take the company to court, wondered why the driver of the ill-fated bus did not pass the night at Ore if he did not allegedly connive with the hoodlums.
Spokesman of the relatives, who simply identified himself as Mr. Martins, said they had gone to the Lagos State command to report the matter but they were referred to Ogun State since the attack did not happen in Lagos but Ijebu-Ode in Ogun State. Efforts to reach the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer on phone proved abortive. He was said to be attending a seminar.
However, Lagos State Police spokesman, Jaiyeoba Joseph, confirmed that some people actually came to the state command to report the incident but were referred to Ogun State.
Women are no longer safe in the hands of rapists. Something urgent needs to be done.At this rate nearly every woman would have been victim one time or the other before long.
THE ROBBER'S RAPED MY FRIENDS ONE AFTER THE OTHER, SOME WHERE VIRGINS AND SCREAMED IN PAIN, I WAS SAVED BY MY MONTHLY MENSTRUAL CYCLE SO HE THOUGHT SOME ONE ALREADY DID ME.........STUDENT.
“The robbers defiled some of the girls but when it got to my turn and I opened my legs, they saw blood between my thighs and this was because I was on my menstrual cycle.
“When we were dragged into the bush, we were ordered to lie down. The robbers would immediately point the flash light at you and say ‘spread your legs open.’
“The robbers thought I had been raped already, left me and continued raping the other girls.”
One of the 42 female students of Holy Rosary College, Enugu, who were attacked by armed robbers in a Lagos-bound luxury bus on Sagamu-Benin Expressway said, while explaining their ordeal in the hands of the dare-devil robbers to a Punch Correspondent.
The girl, who spoke on condition of anonymity at her parents’ residence in Ajao Estate, Lagos,disclosed that that the robbers raped most of the girls because they did not find valuables on them.The traumatised girl, who spoke in a voice laden with emotion, said the robbers, who were many, dragged all the girls into the bush and began raping them one after the other.
She added that robbers were pointing the flashlight directly into the girls’ eyes so that they would not be able to see their faces.
Meanwhile, the spokesperson for the Ogun State Police Command, Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, said patrols were being intensified in the area where the incident took place to checkmate such activities.
Read the Full News of the incident below:
A luxury bus conveying secondary school girls from Enugu to Lagos State was attacked by armed robbers at the Okeodo end of Ore-Sagamu Expressway, Ogun State on Saturday.
The students numbering 42 were of Holy Cross College, Enugu and had hired the bus belonging to Ekene Dili Chukwu Group of Companies with registration number Lagos XW 875 LSR, for their travel to Lagos.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the assailants dragged the students into a nearby bush and beat them before robbing them of their belongings. Unconfirmed reports however said a few of them were raped.
It was further learnt that the incident occurred around 11:40pm.
PUNCH Metro gathered that the students had departed for Lagos early in the afternoon on Saturday but were held up in traffic and had to continue the journey into the night.
The report said the bus developed some faults along the way and had to park at Oke-Odo.
It was while the occupants of the bus were waiting for another bus from Lagos that the robbers struck, it added.
It was learnt that families of the victims, who were already at the Lagos office of Ekene Dili Chukwu, to pick up their children were anxious when they learnt that the bus developed fault.
Our correspondent was told that news of the robbery caused a mild protest as they panicked.
Calm however returned to the terminal on Sunday morning after the distraught girls arrived in Lagos. Meanwhile, parents and relatives of the victims have threatened a show-down with the transport company.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Ogun State Command, Mr. Muyiwa Adejobi, who confirmed the attack, told our correspondent that policemen had rescued victims and recovered the vehicle.
He said, “Around 7:30am on Sunday, one Friday Odi, a driver working with Ekene Dili Chukwu, Nig. Ltd, who drove the vehicle with registration number, Lagos XW 875 LSR, reported that at 11:40pm, on Saturday, while conveying 42 female students of Holy Cross Rosary College, Enugu to Lagos, armed men in Oke Odo area, along Ore-Sagamu Expressway stopped their vehicle.
“The hoodlums drove them to a point in the bush where they were robbed. Policemen traced the hijacked bus, rescued and evacuated the students to their Lagos destination. They towed the vehicle to the station and released it to the owner on bond. Nobody was injured.”
PUNCH Metro learnt that the matter was also reported at Sabo Police Division, Lagos.
The spokesperson for the Lagos State Police Command, Mr. Joseph Jaiyeoba, however told our correspondent that the case would be handled by the Ogun Police Command under whose jurisdiction the crime took place.
A member of the National Union of road Transport Workers, attached to the Jibowu terminal, who spoke with our correspondent on the condition of anonymity, said the relatives of the victims picketed the Lagos office of the transport company on the grounds that some of the victims were raped.
“Some of the parents claimed that their daughters were raped. I think a 13-year-old girl was raped by the hoodlums,” he said.
The police in Lagos and Ogun states, however, said that they were unaware of any rape.
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RAPE STIGMATIZATION IN NIGERIA
By VICTORIA OJEME
ABUJA—Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajia Zainab Maina, said yesterday that the 42 students allegedly raped by armed robbers on the Lagos-Benin expressway in Ogun State has failed to provide information strong enough to prosecute the culprits.
ABUJA—Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajia Zainab Maina, said yesterday that the 42 students allegedly raped by armed robbers on the Lagos-Benin expressway in Ogun State has failed to provide information strong enough to prosecute the culprits.
She said officials of Enugu State Ministry of Women Affairs were disappointed when they got to the residence of the victims but were unable to get the necessary information due to fear of stigmatization.
“There isn’t much anybody can do, if the victims are scared of coming out to say they have been raped,” the minister said.
She revealed that sexual violence ranked second among violation, adding that rape had taken the front burner in recent times, which is frequently targeted at female victims, ranging from children of under five years of age to the elderly and widows of ages 60 years and above.
Describing the various rape cases as not only barbaric, callous and inhuman, she said the incidences were highly unacceptable and called on the National Assembly to re-visit the Domestication of the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women, CEDAW, to protect women and girls in the country.
She also called on law enforcement agents to properly investigate rape cases. lacked sufficient information to warrant arrest of culprits.
She noted that absence of legal framework and mechanisms aimed at reducing the prevalence of violence and holding perpetrators of violent acts accountable was the main reason cases of rape were on the increase in the country.
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