The office of Women Aid Collective, WACOL was allegedly invaded by officers of Nigeria Police Force from Area Command, Abakpa Nike, Enugu in an attempt to compromise a rape case currently being handled by the organization on Thursday, 30th January, 2020.
Confirming the sad development, Prof Joy Ezeilo, the founder of WACOL told Journalist101 that; “the police invaded our office looking for a victim for a case that they want to compromise obviously because I don’t know why a victim that gave them an address will be looked for at WACOL office.
“They raided our office in search of a rape complainant that we reported the case and rather than looking into the case of the victim, they are more concerned about the rapist and his family that are influential and doing everything to stop the case.
“Apparently, the lower rank officers who have compromised themselves and taken money from the parents of the rapist are trying to do their work by trying to intimidate both the victim and WACOL so they can settle out of court.”
Collaborating the story, one of the staff of WACOL who was in office when the police officers stormed their office said the parents of the alleged rapist was in their office to plead for out of court settlement and when that failed (because their office insisted that it’s not in their position to determine how the matter is settled).
“Few minutes after the parents of the alleged rapist left, some police officers from police Area command Abakpa Nike, Enugu stormed our office. They were about 5 in number, 2 female and 3 male officers demanding for a particular staff. That’s the staff that took the victim to the police station to report the case.
“When we told the officers that the particular staff (Goodness) was indisposed, the furious police officers in a commando style, started entering our offices forcefully in search of the staff. They saw her in a meeting and attempted to take her away forcefully. Our lead lawyer volunteered to follow them to the office but they refused and equally seized the phone of the staff so she doesn’t record the melee.”
“The police officers succeeded in taking her to the station were the parents of the alleged rapist was waiting.
“They physically assaulted the young lawyer and forced her to write a statement and also call the victim (names withheld) to come and rewrite her statement.
“Our young lawyer collapsed in the process and was rushed to National Orthopedic Hospital Enugu where she’s still battling with her life.”
When contacted, the Enugu police command Public Relations Officer, ASP, Ndukwe Daniel said; “the command is aware of the matter and are currently investigating what happened.”
“The command is looking at all angles to ascertain what exactly happened so as to take the necessary action” Ndukwe told Journalist101
The management of WACOL gave a brief history of the case thus:
On Monday 27th Of January 2020 we got a distress call from a young girl in Enugu state that she was raped by a certain Uchenna Emenike. We immediately got to the victim that night and took her to the police station where she made a complaint and alleged rapist was arrested
The following day we took the victim to the hospital for medical examination and the doctor confirmed that she was indeed raped.
That same morning, we started receiving calls from the area commander, and the inspector in charge of the case begging us to bring the victim for negotiation, the victim vehemently refused.
Subsequently, they requested that the victim comes for interview with the area commander. We kindly told them that the victim will be available the following day since she was still very much down and in trauma.
On the said day, the police and the perpetrators family came down to our office begging for peace and saying that they do not want the matter to go to court. We told them that it is no longer in our hands, that the victim is an adult and wants the matter to be charged accordingly.
The Area commander, and some inspectors at the Abakpa station started calling the lawyer that accompanied the victim to make her statement and trying to intimidate her. The lawyer assured them that the girl will definitely visit the station as promised.
