Abia Varsity gang rape video stirs nationwide rage

The Abia State University gang rape video hit the internet on Wednesday, August 17. Since then, the rage it generated nationwide has grown by leaps and bounds.
Citizens, non- governmental organizations and a minister have called on security agencies to unmask the five male students who raped a female student of the university.
But while the security agencies dawdle, Nigerians have taken it upon themselves to fish out the five unidentified young men involved in the rape.
The video, which PUNCH METRO watched on Monday, shows five laughing young men having brutal sex with a helpless female.
While the face of the girl could be seen, the faces of the men in the clip are blurred. The lady begged to be either left alone or killed, but the men threatened to detain her indefinitely in the room if she resisted. The incident supposedly took place on Tuesday, August 16.
But while the police, the school authorities and the state government have denied the report, a growing number of internet users have launched initiatives to unmask the rapists and help the victim.
The search and reward
An internet site, ipetition.com, is asking Nigerians to help investigate the incident by sending helpful tips and other information to it.
A blog, /okshortly1.wordpress.com, has offered 200,000 for information that could lead to the identification of the five rapists. The blogger wrote, “We all heard about the heinous rape of a young girl purportedly carried out by five students of the university. The supposed students made a video of the crime which eventually made its way to the internet. People have expressed outrage at the rape but few could do anything about it.
“So I decided to offer a financial reward to anyone who could provide information that would lead to arrest of the suspects. A few other Twitter friends who were as incensed as I was are also helping. For the sake of their privacy, I won’t mention their names. “So if you have any information that can lead to the arrest and prosecution of all five suspects, please send an email to info@einigeria .org .The identity of anyone who provides such information will be protected. The reward for providing this information is N200, 000. You can read the tweet at my twitter handle @OKshortly1.Together we can make a difference.”
A right group, Change.org, posted a link asking people to sign an online petition for justice to be done in the matter. The link is: http://www.change.org/petitions/find-these-five-men-and-bring-them-to-justice.
Nearly all those who have watched the video have expressed indignation. A comment left on a popular blog says, “And do you know what her offence was, why this girl was violated? She supposedly insulted one of the boys. In the violation video, which last for over an hour, the girl cried her eyes out and tried to fight them off in the first few minutes, after a while they subdued her by slapping her, rough handling her, threatening to kill her and having rough sex with her . After a while she gave in instead of fighting.
“Then, she starts mentioning names, and in between, you will hear her scream out in pain as one guy stands up and another penetrates her, and all the while, these boys are laughing.”
Another blogger who identified himself as Nnajiofor wrote, “I watched the video here in UNIBEN. From their discussion, the girl seems to know about three of the boys. Let government encourage her to come out and fish out the fools and ragamuffins.”
But another blogger, Emmanuel, took a different position. He wrote, “I have no comment but questions. Was she dragged to the room or forced? We watched the video here in Imo and from the look of things she willingly went to their house. It is assumed nobody was present when she insulted the guys, so how sure are we it was an insult? I am not in support of the rape but I need the true story of what led to the rape.
But in response to what Emmanuel’s questions, a blogger,Tolulope Bada, wrote, “Mr. Emmanuel, are all those reasons you listed above enough to commit that sadistic animalistic act? Imagine for a second that the lady in question were your sister, niece, cousin or daughter! Be objective in your criticisms.”
Many Nigeria have expressed hopes that the names mentioned by the victim, in the video would lead to the rapist. The rapists let out their names inadvertently as they called out to one another to take their turns. The names called out are Uchenna, Wisdom, Zaki, Chisom and Ifeanyi (or ugbanyi) all believed to be students of ABSU, Uturu. Also, one of the rapists boasted he was a part 4 law student of the university, while another revealed he was on industrial attachment.
Minister, others react
Although the video has caught the attention of government, observers say it has not moved fast enough. Only the minister of Youth Development, Mr.Bolaji Abdullahi, appears to have given the incident the attention it deserves, watchers say. The minister posted on twitter that he had spoken to ABSU Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Chibuzor Ogbuagu and the state police command on the matter.
Abdullahi, who said he contacted the VC on the telephone, tweeted, “Just spoke with VC ABSU. He was categorical that it did not happen in his university. He challenges the authenticity of the story.”
Abdullahi said he had also spoken with the Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Capt. Caleb Olubolade (retd.), and got assurances that the police would investigate the incident. “Just spoke with the Hon. Min of police Affairs who is now speaking with IG on the ABSU gang rape case. Justice will be done!” he said.
Meanwhile, female rights activists have started mobilizing for a protest walk in ABSU’s main campus in Uturu on Wednesday. They said they would like the university authorities to act decisively on the matter.
All through Monday, there were claims and counter-claims on social media on whether the incident actually happened in ABSU.
Denials and revelation
The Abia State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Bala Hassan, who spoke to our correspondent on the telephone on Monday, said the incident did not take place in the state. He said the crime was committed in one of the hostels of the university located in Imo state.
The Police Boss explained the offence was not documented by his command because the scene of the crime was not within his area of jurisdiction.
He said the British Broadcasting Corporation had called him on the incident. He said “I told them that the crime is not in my record. The incident did not take place in Abia. It must have happened in Imo State.”
Our correspondents tried to reach the commissioner of Police, Imo State Police Command, Mr. Abubakar Mohammed, to speak on the incident but he was unavailable.
The Police commissioner’s line was switched off when one of our correspondents called at about 6.20pm on Monday. However, a statement issued by the Abia State Government through the special Adviser to the Governor on E-Governance, Mr. Nnaji Asiegbo, on Monday denied claims that the video never emanated from the School.
It reads, “The Abia State Government has carried out an investigation on this matter and the truth is that, the alleged video never emanated from the University.
“The victim and the perpetrators are not students of Abia State University. Those associating ABSU with such barbaric video should please desist from such.”
But the convener of project Alert, a gender based human rights group, Dr Josephine Chukwuma, flayed the government’s claims that neither the perpetrators nor the victim were students of the school.
She said, “If you watched the video, you will see that though it showed the girl’s face clearly, the rapist carefully covered their own faces. So, how can government for sure say, the boys are not students of the university?
“The onus is now on the police to conduct their own investigation and tell Nigerians and women especially the truth. The video is a complete debasement of womanhood and should not be dismissed without proper investigation.”
Chukwuma said the number of cases of violence and sexual assault on women was increasing drastically, adding that the police needed to be more serious with such cases.
Culled from: Punch Metro, Page, 5
September, 20, 2011

Nigerian girls in Dubai

No doubt Dubai is a commercial city that attracts entreprenuers, tourists etc, especially because of the beauty of the city, it is drop dead amazing......... business trive no doubt, but it is business centre for our Naija girls as well.........uhn who will bail us out of this mess.
For the guys its not prostitution but their living condition is nothing to write home about. Incase you have anyone there, especially my brethren from the South-East who have almost the largest population of Nigerians there, you need to ask them what they do for a living, some of them were arrested just last week and may be on their way home soon!
You need to hear their stories!

Woman miscarries after brutal beating by Naval ratings

A newspaper report says an official of the Nigerian Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Mrs. Obase Mordi, lost her six-week-old pregnancy after she was beaten by naval ratings.
She alleged she was beaten by about six operatives of the Nigerian Navy in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, on August 27, 2011.
Mordi said that she was handcuffed with her brother, Essien Ewa, dragged on the ground and thrown into a patrol van.
The woman just got back from Gold Cross Hospital, Ikoyi, where she had gone for medical treatment as a result of the beating she received. Crying profusely, she revealed a document given to her from the hospital. The result showed she had lost her six-week-old pregnancy. Mordi went to Calabar to attend her brother’s “marriage traditional introduction”.
“I boarded the bus with a naval officer’s wife, who told me her name was Zainab. I don’t know her husband’s name though. Somehow, she mistakenly took my luggage with her and put it in her husband’s waiting car when she got to her destination. I still don’t understand how that happened because she was standing there while the driver was removing the bag.
“When I later noticed that my own bag was missing, I knew it would have to be the woman who took the luggage because she was the only one that got down before I reached my own destination. So, I went to the Naval Barracks on Calabar Road, where I discovered she lives, to claim the luggage,” she explained.
Mordi said when she got to the gate of the barracks; a naval rating asked what she was there for and she explained. She said during the course of their conversation, another man who claimed he was the first rating’s superior came and enquired what she wanted.
She said, “The first man was quite polite. I gave him the woman’s description and as he was asking me some questions to help him locate the woman, the second man came and shouted at the other man to get inside. I explained my problem to the new man, but he asked if that was why I was disturbing them. He was shouting at me demanding to know why I had the audacity to come to the barracks and also parked the car I brought at the gate.
“I pleaded with him, telling him that he should at least be civil to me because I am a woman. I told him that he should know there was something called SERVICOM which demands civility from government officials in the line of duty.”
Mordi recalled that as she asked the driver to move the car aside, the man walked out on them. She said she followed him into the security post by the gate and pleaded with him to help her.
“He started shouting at me, saying I was teaching him his job and quoting laws. He was so angry. I later begged him to allow me to go inside and look for someone who could help me. He told me I dared not go beyond where I was.”
Mordi said when she got frustrated and was not getting anywhere with the man, she made a move to approach someone she saw in the distance for help. The rating then pushed her to the ground. When Mordi got up again, the rating pushed her the second time. According to her, she later got to take the man’s picture which revealed the name tag; Bassey P.L, on his uniform.
She said Bassey started slapping her and then gave her a serious beating. Mordi’s brother who was present during the scuffle tried to hold Bassey’s wrist pleading with him to stop. He turned on the brother too and started beating him.
Mordi said about five other ratings joined in because they said it was an insult for a woman to fight a military man.
“The six of them took pleasure in turning us to their punching bag. I never imagined I could be beaten like that in my life. They said they would kill us and nobody would know.
“When I saw that the beating was getting too much, I told them that I was pregnant. But instead of getting reprieve, one of them hit me in the stomach with the butt of a gun. I immediately change my story that my brother was a sickle cell patient, thinking that they will fear to kill him, but the beating increased; they started stepping on his ribs.
“As they beat him, he begged and told them that I am an official of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. They increased my beating because of that,” she said.
After the naval operatives finished beating the duo, they handcuffed them together and asked them to sit on the ground.
Mordi said, “The shirt I was wearing had been torn during the beating and I made effort to cover my chest. One of the ratings then came over and touched my breasts and said, ‘What are you hiding them for?’ They later dragged us on the ground to a pickup van marked Mesa 15.”
The naval personnel then took the two victims to Akim Police Station, and ordered the policemen at the station to lock them up.
“When we got to the station I begged them to remove the handcuff but as a policeman made an attempt to remove it, the naval officer shouted at him not to do so. By that time, I was already bleeding seriously and I knew at that point something must be wrong with my pregnancy,” Mordi said.
She said she was later asked to write a statement and afterwards the Divisional Police Officer at the station released them and advised that they visit the Police Hospital for treatment. According to her, she declined and went to a private hospital to get first aid treatment and came back to Lagos to get proper treatment the following day.
She said the doctors in the Lagos hospital ran series of tests on her and Ewa. The report of the pregnancy test indicated that she had lost it.
When contacted the Public Relations Officer of the state Naval Command, Lt. Cmdr. Way Olabisi, he said he was not aware of the incident.
“But if she was actually beaten by naval personnel, she should have reported to one of the naval offices nearby. We have NNS Victory very close to the barrack. We even have the naval base nearby. The best time to report would have been immediately the incident occurred. Nevertheless, I would make findings about it,” Olabisi said.
However, spokesman of the EFCC, Mr. Femi Babafemi, neither picked the calls made to him nor replied text messages sent to his telephone.