The ABSU Rape – Justice Must Be Done.. Why It Will Occur Again,

The ABSU Rape – Why It Will Occur Again

On Sunday, September 18, 2011, a 33-day old recorded rape material found its way to the internet. Social blogger Linda Ikeji exposed the gory incident and minutes after, it went viral on nearly all networks. The agenda for Monday’s discussion was set: how five young Nigerian men heartily raped a girl and filmed the one-hour escapade while the victim underwent a roller-coaster of emotions.

The deathly gang-rape summarized in text and aided by a still shot from the grueling video set panic, cursing and advocacy into action.  An abridged 10minutes cut from the recording was posted on line for a brief second before it was taken down out of necessity.  The victim and perpetrators were labelled undergraduates of the Abia State University and the disastrous act took place at an off-camp private hostel, reports alleged.  And while a large percentage of the internet populace mourned the victim’s misfortune, many more clamoured for justice.  The victim, who was eventually sought out and found by Non Governmental Organisations not to be an ABSU undergrad, fought for her life initially but later succumbed to the beastly rapists who took turns to defile her while she wept and then asked to be killed when the pain became unbearable. Her alleged offence was ‘insulting’ one of the boys.

By Monday morning, less than 24hours into the ‘revelation’, the Abia state government had issued a statement labelling the post a ‘distraction’ sponsored by political detractors, thus dismissing investigation. By Tuesday, a visit paid by Channels Tv to the school for enquiries into the incident (as tweeted by a reporter with the news station) met with a school Dean who promised to sue all websites, blogs and magazines that had joined hands to put the school in disrepute; further corroborating the governor’s earlier denial. And even though Hon Abike Dabiri Erewa raised the issue on the floor of the House of Representatives’ that Tuesday, nothing was certain ‘cos nothing was promised. So where do we go from here? How do we convince concerned authorities that a crime had taken place right under their noses?

The livid youths refused to be dissuaded.  Twitter folks spearheaded by @Sugabelly – a Nigerian living offshore who’d survived a similar experience, Advocacy NGOs; EnoughIsEnough, Project Alert, War Against Rape among others, took the bulls by the horn and declared war on the rapists. EiE went as far as offering a N200, 000 reward for information volunteers on the rapists. The die was cast; the battle line drawn. While the advocacy groups launched a search for the victim, @sugabelly focused on the conversations that went on in English and Igbo languages in the recording and uncovered five names – Uchenna, Zaki, Ifeanyi/Ugbaayi, Wisdom and Chisom.  The recording also revealed one of the rapists  as a 400Level Law student and another, an IT student. While the rapists clearly avoided their faces in the recording, the girl’s was clear in the video that had first made the rounds in the Eastern higher institutions before leaking to the internet.

Donning the investigation hat on the general citizenry, false accusation wasn’t far away. While @sugabelly hounded the internet passionately to book the gender assailants, a certain Ifeanyi Ogu Justin was soon falsely peddled as a suspect.  Jonah Uche and Zaki are circumstantially robbed in too and no one is certain of their guilt or innocence. The full name ‘speculations’ soon compelled attention from the State lawmakers who summoned the Vice Chancellor of ABSU as well as the State police boss seeing that the State government’s tune had changed.  The names provided ‘leads’ for the police as they took up the case.  Soon the Minister of Youth Development and National Human Rights commission admitted to identifying one of the rapists conclusively, but added that it is difficult to convict the apprehended of charges since the video is unclear.

In another landmark stride, young people, via the new media, have forced authorities to taking up responsibility but this tool will not always yield desired result. Until the lawmaking bodies of Nigeria put in place stiff laws insisting on the mutual consent of sexually involved partners while posing penal consequences for sexual violations, violators and similar offences, attempted or actual, then we are not on our tracks to sanity yet.  The impunity with which the ABSU rape was carried out and filmed is a resounding embarrassment on the system that should protect its people as well as keep them accountable. More embarrassing is the initial reaction of the Abia state government and State police that made investigating officers of concerned yet untrained citizens whose passion and determination helped establish a case as well as crack the puzzle. Shame to them; Kudos to us.

While an auto-driven justice system without need for prodding before investigating any crime whatsoever is pertinent, a complete purging and re-orientation of the society is pivotal to the reportage of sexual abuse by victims.  The mentality that pushes the blame bulk to the assaulted rather than the offender needs to be defeated by continuous sensitization while also creating facilities for the rehabilitation and re-integration of rape victims into the society. Hopefully the five animals involved in this case study will be fully apprehended and booked optimally to face the full wrath of the law.