Police ask woman raped at knifepoint to pay rapist medical bill

Juliana Francis

A raped survivor has expressed outrage over the police asking her to pay the medical bill of her rapist.

The survivor said that she was shocked when the police detectives attached to the Gender Unit of the Lagos State Police Command, told her that they were going to release the perpetrator, claiming that he was mentally unstable.

According to the survivor, the police also said that since the arrest and detention of the perpetrator, he has been sick. The survivor said that the police told her that if she insisted on justice, rather than allow them to release the perpetrator, they would have to take him to the hospital and she might have to pay for his medical bills.

A human rights activist, Ms. Esther Ekwem, Executive Director of Child Right Foundation has stepped into the matter and is doing possible to ensure the survivor gets justice.

The survivor explained that last week Wednesday 12^th of October, she was sick and lying down when the perpetrator charged into her room and raped her at knifepoint.

Since the incident, she said that she had to quickly vacate her apartment, along with her only child.

She said: “Everything I remembered I get depressed and starts crying. I’m trying to forget, but I can’t! I cry always. I can’t even explain how I feel. I don’t what the police are trying to do, but I will never back down from the case. I need justice!”

Speaking with Security News Alert, she said: “It happened last week Wednesday in the afternoon. I was lying down in my room because I was sick. My daughter left and I was asleep, when I suddenly felt someone entering our room, I opened my eyes and saw the perpetrator called Femo. I was extremely shocked and I asked him what he wanted and what he was doing in my room. He held a knife and he threatened to kill me. Before I knew what was happening, he had become too close and just like that he pulled his boxer to one side and jumped on me. I started shouting.”

She explained that as she was shouting, a neighbour, who had just returned from work came to her rescue.

“The man ordered him to stand up. The man who came to rescue me hit him with something on his head, but he still refused to stand up. My daughter came in to take something, saw me and started shouting. She ran to the passage and continued shouting, calling people to come and rescue me. When my neighbour hit him with something, he then threatened to kill my rescuer, and that was when my daughter came in. My daughter’s shouting caused people to gather. He now ran out and went into their apartment,” narrated the survivor.

After the perpetrator locked himself inside his apartment, sympathisers hired a tricycle and took the survivor to the hospital.

She said: “I couldn’t walk that day because I was so weak. When policemen from Moshalashi Police Station came, they knocked several times on his door, but he refused to open it. It was not until his father returned that he opened the door and the police were able to arrest him. They took him to Mosalashi Police Station and from there transferred him to the command.”

After collecting the police report, the survivor went to Mirabel Centre for a medical examination.

She said: “I was given drugs that would take to avoid pregnancy. He even admitted to the police that he raped me and called the guy that came to rescue me oloriburuku.”

She further explained that the perpetrator’s family is the owner of the building where she lives with her daughter. She has been living in that compound for the past eight years and was not on good terms with the perpetrator’s father.

The survivor, who said that she was still in shock over the incident, said that she knew the perpetrator even when he was in secondary school.

She further stated: “I went to the command on Thursday and the police told me that the guy was getting mad, but I know that they want to twist this case. I don’t know how the man suddenly became mad! This is a guy that burst into my room armed with a knife, raped me and refused to open the door to the police, trying to evade arrest. It was the police at Moshalashi that asked to leave my apartment following the incident, and the police went to check out the scene of the crime before transferring the case to command.”

Asked if she saw any sign of madness in the perpetrator before the sexual attack, the survivor said: “I did not see any sign of madness. Before he attacked me on that day, I had seen him earlier. The police told me that the guy was mad, that they need to treat him and that he needed to be treated. I asked them if the madness just descended on him in these two or three days that they arrested him for raping me. Why was he not mad when he was at Mosalashi Police Station? I asked them if they took him to any specialist to certify he was mad. They said they wanted to treat him, but that it was me that would even pay the money. How can he rape me and the police want me to pay for his medical bill?  I can never this case and each time I remember the incident, I used to shed tears. I want justice and I deserved justice. When I questioned the police on why I should pay his bills, the police said that his family looks poor and that even his father looked like someone who had not eaten. The police also said that the family doesn’t have money to do the case. The police also said that they would be coming to check the scene of the crime. The Investigating Police Officer (IPO) is Mr Lawrence.”

When the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Benjamin Hundeyin was contacted on the matter, he contacted the Unit. He said: “As soon as the boy gets well he will be charged to court. Yesterday, the woman came to the office, she was discussing compensation but I told her that the case must go to court. The woman is a tenant in the suspect’s (perpetrator’s) parents’ Building. According to her, she was sick when the suspect (perpetrator) came with a knife and forcibly raped her. I was told that the suspect (perpetrator) suffered an attack and was released to the father for medical treatment. The case will be charged to court as soon as the suspect gets better. The suspect (perpetrator) was released this morning when he had an asthma attack in the cell. I was also told that the survivor refused to come as at the time the case was supposed to be charged to court, she said she travelled. But now, we can’t charge sick people to court. The court will not even accept him.”