Robbers Force LAUTECH Students To Sex One Another

Within few minutes of settling down in a secluded
place – off the campus – where Bimbola (not real
name) agreed to narrate her ordeal to our
correspondent last Monday, the dry white
handkerchief she was holding became soaked with
tears.
She tried to stop weeping for a while, but she
couldn't resist it, and the more her friend – who
followed her to the meeting – tried to calm her
down, the more she struggled to hold back her
tears. What she passed through in August was
painful, unimaginable and dehumanising. In fact,
she might not be able to forget that night in her
life.
Ever since the incident, everything about her has
changed, according to her friend.
In the night of August 13, 2015 – around 12
midnight – she said she and her roommate had
returned from a night reading class in preparation
for their forthcoming exam in November, locked
their room and were about to sleep when they
heard their hostel mates jamming their doors,
screaming and walking up the hostel stairs.
Before they knew what was happening, the men
were at their door and expectedly, they forced the
door open. "Come out now or we will kill you," she
recalled what the men told her and her roommate,
and with fear and trembling, the girls did their
bidding.
Three hefty fearful-looking men, clad in black polos
and jeans, armed with guns, machetes and axes
had stormed their hostel – located in the Under G
Area of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology,
Ogbomoso, Oyo State – and demanded that all the
students, both male and female, should gather in
one room.
While one of the hoodlums stayed with the
students, pointing guns at them should they
'misbehave,' the other two locked the entrance to
the hostel, ransacked all rooms one after the other,
stole the students' laptops, money, debit cards,
tablets and mobile phones.
But even after stealing all their property, the
robbers were not done. The next command they
gave the students was what Bimbola has not yet
got over with.
She narrated, "They raped some girls in our
presence, but not only that, they asked us to start
having sex with ourselves. They called from among
us a guy and a girl and asked them to have sex with
themselves, right in everybody's presence. They
threatened to use their weapons on us if we didn't
cooperate. Then they asked all of us to strip
Unclad. Since it was in the night, most of us ladies
already had only our night gowns on, while most of
the guys were just putting on boxers. They said we
should all be Unclad. When they were satisfied,
they called another pair of students to do the same
thing and told everybody to watch.
"For about three hours, they dehumanised us,
humiliated us. Unfortunately, nobody in the next
hostel knew what was going on; if anyone knew,
they would have helped us to call the police or the
Student Union Government officials."
But what was more pathetic about Bimbola's story
was that she didn't just witness the whole action;
she was also asked to have sex with a guy she
never dated. "Everything happened like it was a
dream. They pointed at a guy I knew as my junior
and asked him to do 'it' with me. When I refused,
they slapped me and I fell. I had no option than to
do it. I looked at my roommate and she was
already shedding tears for me. How humiliated I
was!" she cried.
She further told our correspondent, "It was not a
night to remember. I wish I could erase it from my
memory. My friend and I returned to the hostel
that night after reading in the school because our
exam is fast approaching. If I knew something like
that would happen, I would have stayed in the
school till the morning, but I needed to prepare for
the following day's work. I had just finished having
a shower when my roommate and I observed
something was wrong. There was no light, so we
couldn't see properly, but we observed that our
hostel mates were all jamming their doors at some
men's command.
"They cramped all of us in one of the rooms
upstairs and we were all frightened. My parents
are not yet aware of this incident and I don't wish
to share it with anyone again. I only agreed to
speak to you because my friend here encouraged
me to and I feel something should be done by the
authorities concerned to stop this barbarism. I
know I'll be fine soon."
Since July when they resumed for the semester, the
students of LAUTECH have been witnessing robbery
attacks and rape by the same set of unknown men
– who call themselves 'Three MOPOLs' each time
they barge into their victims' hostels.
Though the institution is non-residential,
individuals and private organisations provide
accommodation for the students around the
university.
The Welfare Officer of the Student Union
Government of the institution, Ridwan Okedara,
said he could not count the number of calls he had
received ever since the incident started occurring
in July up till about two weeks ago. He said it was
unfortunate that the hoodlums had yet to be
apprehended.
He said, "I've received calls in the past four months
almost every passing night about this incident.
Victims and eyewitnesses usually say the robbers
were always three and they would tell them they
were the 'Three MOPOLS,' but we are not sure if
they are not even more than that. For instance,
there were some nights when I received calls that
the robbers were operating in the Adenike Area (a
popular students' residential area near the school)
and I would quickly call our security officers to go
to the said hostel, but few minutes later, I would
receive a call that they were operating somewhere
else.
"Before the security people could get there, the
robbers would have left and we would hear they
had started operating somewhere else. We don't
know their tactics yet. From what we have heard
from eyewitnesses, they would enter a hostel,
pretend as if they were looking for somebody and
before the students knew it, they would threaten
them with guns and machetes and ask all of them
to be inside one particular room after collecting
their phones, laptops and money. They ask the
students to strip off their clothes – both male and
female, then ask them to start having sex with
themselves. They could call a male from say 200
Level and ask him to have sex with say a 400 Level
female student.
"These robbers rape our students and then ask the
students to have sex with themselves. We've heard
a case when the robbers used white handkerchiefs
to wipe the private parts of the students after the
act. We are also suspecting ritualism here. They go
to hostels anytime from 8pm to 1am and from
eyewitnesses' accounts, there was usually no light
anytime the hoodlums carried out their operation."
This is exactly what another victim of robbery in
September by the same 'Three MOPOLs' said, who
spoke with
Saturday PUNCH on the condition of anonymity at a
restaurant outside the school premises.
Meanwhile, Okedara has information about some
of the hostels where the incidents [rape and
robbery] had taken place, but pleaded to be kept
secret to avoid undue stigmatisation of the victims,
which is perhaps understandable.
The other victim who spoke with our
correspondent said, "It was very dark and there
was no light to see their faces when they came to
our hostel. They told us they were the 'Three
MOPOLS,' and mere looking at them, we could not
imagine how they were able to gain entry into our
hostel and ordering all of us to go inside one room.
We were told to take off our clothes and they raped
some of the girls. They didn't rape me and they
didn't ask me to have sex with anyone, but they
stole my laptop and phone. It was traumatic. It was
like experiencing hell that night."
The President of the school's chapter of the
Women Against Rape, Sexual Harassment and
Sexual Exploitation, who is a nursing student in the
institution and also the Vice-President, the National
Union of Campus Journalists, Israel Fawole, said
the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and the
national body of the Women Against Rape
organisation had already been informed about the
issue and that they had taken interest in the matter.
He further said some of the victims had been taken
in for rehabilitation at undisclosed locations due to
the trauma they had experienced.
He said, "Not all of them are willing to open up, but
some have come forward and they are being taken
care of. Rape is an epidemic and it must stop.
Some of the victims are undergoing rehabilitation
now. Most of them are shy to talk about it, but
recently, we organised a peace walk against rape,
where female students had to protest against the
incident.
"It is so unfortunate that unwanted visitors would
barge in, threaten our students with axes and guns,
ask the opposite sexes to start having sex in their
presence and other students. They collect the
students' property, rape them and still tell them to
commit sex with one another. We are tired of this
mess."
Forced into lesbianism
Another terrible aspect about the incident is when
the hoodlums ordered female students whom they
had taken hostage to make love among themselves,
thereby practically forcing them to commit an act
of lesbianism. An official of the institution, with
whom some of the victims and eyewitnesses had
shared their ordeal with, told
Saturday PUNCH.
The official, who pleaded anonymity, said some
female students confided in him that they were
asked to have sex with other female students
during the robbery operations.
"I believe it is more than what meets the eyes. This
is not an ordinary robbery. Normal robbers take
what they want and leave. They would not ask
students to all be in one room, tell them to go
unclad, rape the female ones and still tell their
victims to have sex with one another. It is a
disgusting thing and as a parent myself, I have
been unhappy since I started hearing the bad
experiences of some of our students," he said.
Bimbola had also told our correspondent that the
robbers called a female student and asked her to
have sex with another female student in the night
they attacked them.
When students become vigilantes
This situation could perhaps be ascribed to poor
insecurity for the students of the institution, with
some of the students blaming the situation on both
the police (for allegedly extorting and not
protecting them) and the school management (for
not intervening on time when the crisis started).
For several weeks, the students became their own
security personnels. While the male ones carried
planks to scare off the 'unseen' criminals and
burned tyres in the night, the female students
cheered up their male colleagues.
The SUG Welfare Officer, Okedara, said, "The
insecurity in the school is unfortunate. This started
a week after we resumed for this semester. On the
first day of our resumption, we had an issue with
the police, which led to a serious
misunderstanding. The SUG had a confrontation
with the police then. They used to patrol hostels
and in the process did extort our students,
according to victims. They would stop students on
the road and probably if they saw expensive
phones or tablets on them, they would ask where
they got them from. Their mentality is that those
using 'big' phones are 'Yahoo-yahoo' people
(internet fraudsters).
"We got several reports from our students on this
issue and we couldn't take it anymore. The
president of the SUG challenged them and this led
to a fracas. We went to the station at Owode to
report to the DPO, but they attacked us. We went to
the Soun (the traditional ruler) of Ogbomoso and
the resolution there was that if we didn't want them
to be coming again, they wouldn't come because
we really didn't see any impact they were making
then apart from extorting students. We wanted
them to stop coming because of the bad eggs
among them, but the Commissioner for Police has
intervened in the matter.
"Few days after this confrontation with the police,
the incident became rampant and this has turned
almost all of us to vigilantes. We stay late at night,
keeping vigil and burning tyres, just to scare off the
perpetrators of this crime. When we started
hearing of this act, all students usually went to bed
early, but we found out that it was giving these
'three MOPOLs' an advantage. We sensitised
ourselves and we decided to stay late at nights."
The President of the SUG of the institution,
Olatunde Bakare, said he had been personally
leading a team of student vigilantes since July due
to the alleged nonchalant attitude of the police and
the school management previously.
He said, "It is a bad experience and it saddens my
heart that something this disgusting is happening
to our students. When it started, we thought it was
something we could curb on our own, so we took
to the streets. I led a group of students who
became watchmen overnight. We constituted a
security committee on our own to be our own
security personnels.
"We have both the male and female students
keeping vigil. We don't carry guns, but only burn
tyres and we hold planks, just to let the robbers
know we are not sleeping. We stay up till 3am and
this has affected students, especially those who
have lectures early in the morning, but we cannot
rest until we apprehend these criminals. The exam
is starting next month and we hope this will not
happen again.
"We found out that anytime the operation was
going on in, say Area A, we would get a call that it
was going on in Area B. We would have
apprehended the criminals, but for the diversion in
reports. We couldn't involve the police initially
because the bad eggs there were just extorting our
students. The aspect of ritualism is more
disgusting to me.
"Because the school is non-residential, it has
exposed us to many hazards. We protested that the
school management should do something and we
told them we want the school to become
residential so that there could be more security.
We believe if the management could work on our
resolution in reviewing the edict which established
the school, it could become residential. Hostels
could be built on the campus so that the school
security would help a lot in protecting our
students."
Anger, protests
Bakare, like other students Saturday PUNCH spoke
with, also said protests had been staged against
the school management on the issue because
rather than the school looking deeply into the issue
and responding appropriately, they responded that
because it is a non-residential institution, they had
the responsibility of protecting students only when
they were on the campus and not when in their
hostels.
The response of the management did not in any
way sound sensible to the students.
"The management's claim was that the school is
non-residential, but when it became unbearable,
they called a meeting of all the stakeholders and
they have started doing something. The DSS, SARS,
OPC and local vigilantes too are now with us. We
called on the Ibadan Electricity Distribution
Company and they too have improved on supplying
electricity to hostels. If those criminals try it again,
we will apprehend them," Bakare boasted.
'We're beefing up security'
The Public Relations Officer of the institution, Mr.
Lekan Fadeyi, said the insinuation that the
university management didn't do anything on the
rape and robbery incidents was far from the truth.
He said the school had, before the incidents,
teamed up with landlords of students' hostels in
hiring security officials to patrol the hostels.
He, however, said it was a challenge providing
security for the over 4,000 students of the
institution, being a non-residential one.
He said, "We seek the understanding of the
students to know the challenge facing the
management. The edict establishing the school
does not in the first place allow us to have hostels.
Be that as it may, we would like members of the
public to know that long before the recent ugly
happenings, there was a standing security
committee of the university – members include
representatives of all security agencies and I can
state categorically that all the main security arms
of the government have served diligently well in
this committee.
"Even in the most recent incidents, the
management summoned a meeting of all
landlords, agents and students to brainstorm on
ways of increasing security awareness and
combating crime. It went further to call an
emergency meeting of the university governing
council.
Source: http://punchng.com/2015/10/2616