Another case of alleged rape and sexual assault is in danger of being swept under the carpet with the victim backing out after several pleas and threats from the perpetrator, who incidentally has been identified as a man in uniform.
Sarah Ayeku who has been investigating the story narrates that the justice system is frustrating the victim and seems to empowers the alleged rapist.
This is one of the cases that may never get to the courtroom (shot of Lady Justice) why you would ask, the police didn’t start an investigation.
Text: we are using a model to tell this story but the voice is that of the victim
We have tried getting Susan to speak out and shame the man who allegedly raped her on the 3rd of March, 2023, she is in hiding, hoping to forget how a man who claimed to want to help her get a job, jeopardized her future.
Susan is not her real name but she is a 21-year-old lady striving to get an admission into a tertiary institution in Nigeria. She has just concluded her final exams in secondary school.
Date stamp: 3rd of March
Phone call ringing
A man’s voice (come outside, I am outside Dominos)map Dominos trace down to Ever crest hotel
At the supposed scene of the crime, the hotel in question has no signpost but it’s known in the area. Although there is a CCTV at the small reception, anything can happen upstairs in the substandard rooms without anyone knowing since the place is unguarded.
Use girl’s voice narrating the story (shots of hotel)
Insert: first phone conversation of the man denying
With the help of her brother, susan gets in touch with a human rights organisation
When they tried the suspect’s number again, he confesses to his crime.
Insert: second phone conversation
Thirty minutes away from the scene of the crime, the lawyer helping with the case reports at Ajao Estate police station, then the cards start to crumble. It seems Susan’s case won’t see the light of day.
The victim alleges that she was asked to settle with the suspect.
Date stamp:
Weeks after the interview, no investigation was done to confirm or debunk Susan’s experience; instead we get a message stating that Susan would like to withdraw her case from the lawyer. (melancholic sound)This echoes what she said at the later part of our interview with her.
According to the United Nations Population Fund report on gender-based violence, three in 10 Nigerian women know someone raped. The rape victims have mostly been minors and young adults from months old baby to 25 years.
According to a 2022 media justice status report on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) in Nigeria, between the year 2018 and 2020, only 56 (63.6%) of the 88 Sexual and Gender-Based Violence (SGBV) cases –from a media-monitored sample—reported to the police or other law enforcement agencies were charged to court. At the gender unit of the Lagos state Police command, 14 cases of rape have been reported from January – June, out of these cases, only 4 are currently in court, according to the police, the cases are either still under investigation or there are no evidences or witnesses to testify the case reported.
The police maintain that giving Police officers money for logistics or investigation is illegal but the question is, does the police have a separate budget for prosecution of sexual and gender based violence or do they fall back on their lean budget to help victims?
For us to tell this story, it was difficult because Susan didn’t want to talk about it again[any longer]. The culture of silence and fear of the unknown seems to be catching up with her. The question of who we were trying to get justice for was troubling. After much effort, we realized that seeing what’s wrong and deciding to look the other way will further silence other victims who wish to talk.
We are not using the picture of the perpetrator because he is a police officer and because the victim backed out, but we have the name given by the victim.
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