The commissioner of police in Edo State,Hakeem Olusegun Odumosu has vowed to deal with the
suspects who molested anddehumanized 24 years old Favour Ada Friday on alleged stealing of an iPhone‘X’ set for which she was beaten with pepper inserted in her private part. Theincident took place at Lucky lgbinovia house at Ugbihoko area, in the statecapital, Benin City.
The CP, Odumosu disclosed that with the investigation carried out so far, thepolice discovered that,
no phone was missing. He said the law must take its course.
Thecommissioner made the disclosure when a coalition of FlDA, NGOs, CSOs and otherwomen groups in Edo State staged a protest to the state police command to express anger and outrage over the totalharassment of women and girl children in the state.
The angry women who displayed placardscalling for justice and an end to abuse of women and girls, demanded theprotection of women and girls to end further abuses.
He explained, “The suspects weredisplaced and charged to court, as wellas the landlord of the house; eight of them were involved -six were arrested, including the landlord of thehouse. He did not only provide his house for the dehumanization of the woman,he equally saw it. l asked him if ifthis happens to have been done to his wife, daughter. what would be his reaction,he did not talk. But, the law is going to take its course.
“All the suspects have been chargedto court and been remanded in Oko prison. l assured you the
suspects will pay for it. On our part wewill make sure we carry out our probe carefully… That will serve as a deterrentto others. They were charged on 14 counts including an attempted murder,dehumanization and trial by ordeal and extortion.
“Atthe end of the day we discovered that the allegation of iPhone X theft leveledagainst the woman was just cooked up in order to extort money from her. Thephone that was alleged to have been
stolen was never stolen”.
TheCP also used the opportunity to caution landlords, caretakers and hoteliersto be watchful in respect of the kind of people they accommodate to avoidbarbaric and evil acts being carried out in their
domains.
“l want to use this forum to warn alllandlords and hoteliers because the whole incident started in an hotel.”
Thepolice boss said the involvement of the state commissioner for Justice in theprotest will further strengthen the women’s cause.
‘Withthe involvement of commissioner of Justice in this rally, we are going to havethe full stringent of
the law. Every complaint on genderissues will be handled by me. Security is everybody’s business. I must thankyou on behalf of the lG (Inspector General), and for coming out to protestagainst this evil act, I really appreciate you. l thank you because you areassisting the police. What you people are doing now is community policing,”he buttressed.
ln her remarks, the commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of Edo State, Prof.YinkaOmorogbe urged the CP to allow Justice prevail on the matter.
“l speak from the perspective ofjustice. Justice is for all and one thing we need to realize is that everybodyis entitled to justice. Women comprise half of the population of Nigeria, andthey are eligible to the same rights that everybody has. l think that is onething we want to emphasize on. The Ministry of Justice is committed to thisstruggle.”
She said the women want to ensure justice prevails.
“What we want is to ensure justiceis done in this issue. We want you to help us to ensure we get fullinvestigation. We are dealing with gender violence. Justice is for all in EdoState, we are very much more interested on this case,” she stressed.
Also commenting, the Edo State NBAchairman, Prince Collins Ogiegbean, appealed to the police boss
to allow justice to prevail.“Society is no longer the way it used to be. We do not want to go back tothe difficult state in nature where life was so short, nasty and brutish; when every man was taking laws into hishands. But in all of these, we must call on the security agency to carry outproper investigation and pursue justice. We must remember always that justiceis a three-way traffic; justice for the victim who is crying out for justicefrom the society.
Also, chairperson of FlDA, Miss lreneOmorogiuwa, expressed disappointment overthe spate of jungle justice in EdoState. “This issue of jungle justice must stop. We have a young girl whohas been raped and dehumanized. We want to use this medium to call ongovernment to assent to the Violent Against Persons Prohibition Bill, VAPP2019, issue that has to do with female genital cases, which we believe is astrong source of issues happening on daily basis.
“Mycommissioner, help us so that the men killing all women in Edo State stops. Allthe women in Edo see it as a fight against every woman, this must stop,”she cried.
The women who, staged their protestaround various major streets in Benin city decried massive
violence meted out against women by menand appealed to the Oba of Benin, keystakeholders in the state and Governor Obaseki to rescue them.
Followingthe massive protest, Governor Obaseki has signed the Violence Against PersonsProhibition ill into law, laying further grounds for nailing violators.
