Within the night time of August thirteen, 2015 – round 12 midnight – Bimbola (not actual title) and her roommate returned from an evening studying class in preparation for his or her forthcoming examination in November, locked their room and have been about to sleep after they heard their hostel mates jamming their doorways, screaming and strolling up the hostel stairs.
Earlier than they knew what was occurring, some males have been at their door and expectedly, they pressured the door open.
“Come out now or we are going to kill you!” With concern and trembling, Bimbola and her roommate did their bidding.
Three hefty fearful-trying males, clad in black polos and denims, armed with weapons, machetes and axes had stormed their hostel – situated within the Beneath G Space of Ladoke Akintola College of Know-how, Ogbomoso, Oyo State – and demanded that each one the scholars, each female and male, ought to collect in a single room.
Whereas one of many hoodlums stayed with the scholars, pointing weapons at them ought to they ‘misbehave,’ the opposite two locked the doorway to the hostel, ransacked all rooms one after the opposite, stole the scholars’ laptops, cash, debit playing cards, tablets and cellphones.
However even after stealing all their property, the robbers weren’t carried out. The subsequent command they gave the scholars was what Bimbola has not but gotten over with.
She narrated her painful, unimaginable and dehumanising ordeal to PUNCH Metro in a really tearful interview final Monday. The dry white handkerchief she was holding was soaked with tears after making an attempt to cease weeping for some time, however couldn’t resist it.
She instructed Punch:
“They raped some ladies in our presence, however not solely that, they requested us to begin having intercourse with ourselves. They referred to as from amongst us a man and a woman and requested them to have intercourse with themselves, proper in everyone’s presence. They threatened to make use of their weapons on us if we didn’t cooperate.
Then they requested all of us to strip bare. Because it was within the night time, most of us women already had solely our night time robes on, whereas many of the guys have been simply placing on boxers. They mentioned we should always all be bare. Once they had been glad, they known as one other pair of scholars to do the identical factor and informed everyone to observe.
For about three hours, they dehumanised us, humiliated us. Sadly, no one within the subsequent hostel knew what was occurring; if anybody knew, they might have helped us to name the police or the Pupil Union Authorities officers.”
However what was extra pathetic about Bimbola’s story was that she didn’t simply witness the entire motion; she was additionally requested to have intercourse with a man she by no means dated.
“All the things occurred prefer it was a dream. They pointed at a man I knew as my junior and requested him to do ‘it’ with me. Once I refused, they slapped me and I fell. I had no choice than to do it. I checked out my roommate and she or he was already shedding tears for me. How humiliated I used to be!” she cried.
She continued:
“It was not an evening to recollect. I want I may erase it from my reminiscence. My good friend and I returned to the hostel that night time after studying within the faculty as a result of our examination is quick approaching. If I knew one thing like that will occur, I might have stayed within the college until the morning, however I wanted to arrange for the next day’s work. I had simply completed having a bathe when my roommate and I noticed one thing was flawed. There was no gentle, so we couldn’t see correctly, however we noticed that our hostel mates had been all jamming their doorways at some males’s command.
“They cramped all of us in one of many rooms upstairs and we had been all frightened. My dad and mom will not be but conscious of this incident and I don’t want to share it with anybody once more. I solely agreed to talk to you as a result of my good friend right here inspired me to and I really feel one thing must be accomplished by the authorities involved to cease this barbarism. I do know I’ll be positive quickly.”
Since July after they resumed for the semester, the scholars of LAUTECH have been witnessing theft assaults and rape by the identical set of unknown males – who name themselves ‘Three MOPOLs’ every time they barge into their victims’ hostels.
Although the establishment is non-residential, people and personal organisations present lodging for the scholars across the college.
An official of the establishment, with whom a few of the victims and eyewitnesses had shared their ordeal with, advised Saturday PUNCH that they confided in him saying they had been requested to have intercourse with different feminine college students in the course of the theft operations.
“I consider it’s greater than what meets the eyes. This isn’t an unusual theft. Regular robbers take what they need and go away. They’d not ask college students to all be in a single room, inform them to go unclad, rape the feminine ones and nonetheless inform their victims to have intercourse with each other. It’s a disgusting factor and as a guardian myself, I’ve been sad since I began listening to the unhealthy experiences of a few of our college students,” he mentioned.
The President of the SUG of the establishment, Olatunde Bakare, mentioned he had been personally main a workforce of pupil vigilantes since July because of the alleged nonchalant perspective of the police and the college administration beforehand.
The Public Relations Officer of the establishment, Mr. Lekan Fadeyi, mentioned the insinuation that the college administration didn’t do something on the rape and theft incidents was removed from the reality. He stated the varsity had, earlier than the incidents, teamed up with landlords of scholars’ hostels in hiring safety officers to patrol the hostels.
He, nevertheless, stated it was a problem offering safety for the over four,000 college students of the establishment, being a non-residential one. PUNCH
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