Perhaps the three students of the School of Health Technology, Akure, Ondo State, who allegedly gang-raped a year one student of the institution had reckoned that the victim would not want the matter reported for fear of stigmatisation, hence the audacity to commit the alleged crime right inside the girl’s boyfriend’s house, not far from the school premises. This is much more so as they threatened to upload the video if she told anyone about her ordeal.
The three suspects said to have committed the crime on August 14 have been arrested by the police. They are: Aderoboye Damilola, Eyitayo Charles and Blessing Michael. According to the police, they would be charged to court after the police conclude their investigation.
We cannot wait to see this happen. What they have allegedly done is grievous and the only way to ensure justice is to see them prosecuted, and if found guilty, made to pay the price to deter others who might have the same inclination like them. It is the height of the moral decadence in the society.
Hear the victim: “I was in the room when the three of them forcefully had their way in and pounced on me. When they entered into the room, I was shocked and they asked me to take off my dress and to lie on the bed. I appealed to them to leave me alone, but they rebuffed my plea. They asked one of them to forcefully undress me, after which the three of them raped me. They even threatened me that they had the video recordings of the attack and that they would upload the videos on the social media if I tell anyone.”
We deplore the growing incidence of rape, especially in our higher institutions. In 2017, five students of Adeyemi College of Education, Ondo, and Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, Owo, in Ondo State also allegedly gang-raped a student who reportedly jilted her lover for another man. The suspected rapists were: Solomon Timilehin, Olagbaju Tobi, Adetuyi Olakunle, Adeyemi Adebisi and Eric Nwage. They also recorded the incident and threatened to kill the lady if she shouted during the sexual escapade, and that if she ever reported it to the school or police, the video recording would go viral.
Nothing short of prosecuting the suspects would do. We wonder why students who should be exemplars of chastity and good behaviour would descend so low to such beastly conduct. Rape is bad enough; not to talk of gang-rape an individual. Dating is a matter of choice and not force. We expect students of the school of health technology to know the implications of the unprotected sex that they forced their victim into.
We however praise the courage of the victim for speaking out, especially in our kind of environment where rape victims sulk silently instead of making their ordeals known to the public, for fear of stigmatisation.
We applaud the reaction of the provost of the school, Dr. Felix Olawoye, who has not only condemned the alleged act but also vowed that the suspects must face the wrath of the law. “The students have been arrested and, as an institution, the law must take its rightful course, after which the school’s disciplinary committee would also present its recommendation to the political head (the commissioner for health). We don’t tolerate any form of indiscipline.” he declared.
We hope the school would walk the talk if only to let the incident serve as deterrence to other perverts that the school has zero-tolerance for such shameful conduct.
Leave a Reply