For
nine days, Shola (real names withheld) was in pain. The abdominal pain
she endured felt as if a knife got stuck in her. She was scared but she
had no choice but to endure the pain since she couldn’t imagine telling
her parents the trauma she had been subjected to that led to the pains
she was going through.
“How
could I face them? How could I tell them that the man they handed me
over to, to help me process my admission, had r*ped me?” Shola said.
But then, much as she tried, she couldn’t continue hiding her ordeal...
especially when
the pains had become unbearable. Her parents eventually got to know what
their daughter had passed through in the quest of trying to become an
undergraduate of UNILAG.
As
reported by PUNCH, 18-year-old Shola is one of the numerous hopeful
candidates, wishing to secure admission into the school. But her score
of 211 in the Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination fell short of
the requirement for Mass Communication, which was her choice.
Her
father, who resided in Abesan Estate in Ipaja area of Lagos, had done
all he could to ensure that her daughter would become a university
student this year but all his efforts seemed to be futile.
“Someone
told me to send her UTME registration number. He checked on the
university website and said she was not eligible. Not convinced, I went
to the school myself to check and it was the same problem.
“I
had to start making calls to other universities where she could secure
admission and someone told me she they could be helped to gain admission
into the Olabisi Onabanjo University with that score.
“As
soon as the UTME result was released around May, I informed a friend of
mine who lives within the estate, who is a lecturer at UNILAG. I took
my daughter to him and he promised that when it was time for the
post-UTME examination, he would help her out with the process.”
The
friend Shola’s father mentioned is Dr. Akin Baruwa, a lecturer in the
Department of Accounting, UNILAG, who is also a chairman of one of the
community development committees of Abesan Estate.
Shola’s
father explained that when she realised that her result was not being
accepted as eligible for Mass Communication, he went back to Baruwa on
July 22, 2015 and the lecturer told him to bring his daughter the
following morning so he could take her to campus and see how he could
help.
“He
said they had to take off very early the following morning. I did not
suspect anything unusual about that timing because I trusted him. By
4am, I roused my daughter. We prepared and I took her to Baruwa’s house.
I did not opt to follow them because I trusted him. I did not imagine
that anything untoward could happen,” he said.
Baruwa
and Shola took off from Abesan about 5am. She would later return home
by 11am. His daughter was noticeably moody as she came home. Two hours
earlier, Baruwa had called the father and told him that he had done all
he could but that it did not seem her admission would be possible.
“When he told me that, I believed he had done all he could and told my daughter to come back home,” he said.
But
it was not the same Shola that came back home. She was moody and
noticeably quiet. She went straight to her room and locked the door.
In
company with child rights activist, Mrs. Esther Ogwu, whom the case was
reported to by the family, PUNCH spoke with Shola in private to give
details of what happened in Baruwa’s office that day.
It
was obvious the girl was trying hard to stay composed. While she spoke,
her right hand would go to her lower abdomen occasionally. When asked
about it, she explained that she was still feeling some pain, which had
reduced a lot since she got treatment.
Shola
said on Thursday, July 23, 2015, as her father handed her over to the
lecturer, she still did not suspect anything until they got to around
Maryland.
“While
I was inside the car, he started to touch my hair and rub my head. I
was very surprised and I brushed off his hand. He never tried it again
till we got to UNILAG,” Shola alleged.
According
to her, while they were on the way, Baruwa was showing her different
parts of town, telling her about places she did not know.
She
alleged, “While we were on the way, he asked if I go out at all and I
told him I don’t usually go out. And he would show me a place and say
‘This is Maryland o. You may not know since you don’t go out.’ Then he
took me to the Yaba College of Technology. He drove inside and showed me
the place. We later proceeded to UNILAG.
“When
we got to his office, it was about 6.30am. The offices in the building
were deserted. He said he liked to be early to avoid traffic. He told me
to sit on the couch in his office.
“I
noticed he was restless. He would stand and go outside sometimes. He
asked if I wanted anything, I told him I was fine. He put on the
television; I told him I was okay. He put on the air conditioner and I
told him I did not want that.
“He
had already heated water and made Coffee, which he offered to me. I
told him I was okay and really did not need that. He then put the hot
Coffee on the table. Later, out of respect, I took the cup and sipped a
little. I started to feel drowsy not long after that. I did not know
why.”
According
to Shola’s narration, Baruwa later took her to see a female official in
another building who examined her documents and explained further that
there was little that could be done on her admission.
Baruwa reportedly said she might have to opt for diploma.
Shola claimed that when they went back to his office, the lecturer kept her document on his table.
She
said, “He kept standing and moving around the office. Later, he went
outside and when he came back inside, he locked the door and kept the
key on his table. I did not know what was happening.
“A
moment later, he told me to pick up a paper for him beside the
couch. As I bent down to pick up the paper, he pushed me into a corner
of the couch and held me down as he forcibly removed my trousers and
underwear.”
PUNCH asked at this point if Shola made any attempt to shout to alert anybody nearby.
She
claimed that she actually screamed but that the way he held her down
did not allow her voice to be as audible as she had wanted it to be.
Shola
claimed, “If people were around the office, they would have heard me
shout. He held me down, and pulled down my trousers and underwear. I
screamed and begged him to leave me alone but he did not.
“After
he had his way, he released me. As soon as I pulled up my trousers, I
grabbed the keys to the door and rushed out while he was dressing up. He
was walking behind me as I walked downstairs from his office. He said
nothing as I walked away crying. He later went back.”
Shola’s
father told our correspondent that he had been able to secure a place
for her to write her post-UTME examination for an admission into OOU but
the young girl has refused to go.
When
Shola was asked why she refused to go, she said “How can I be sure that
this same thing would not happen there? I don’t know anybody there. If
it happens again, where would I run to?”
PUNCH tracked down Dr. Baruwa after speaking with Shola, he gave his version of the saga.
According to him, he indeed had a s*xual encounter with Shola but it was “consensual.”
The
lecturer, who seemed to be in his early 40s, told PUNCH that he made
the mistake of not doing enough to resist the temptation of ‘sleeping’
with Shola.
Speaking
in the front of his house out of earshot of his wife and two children,
Dr. Baruwa said, “I swear to God that the girl agreed to everything that
happened. She was a chatty girl, who did not show any shyness.
“It
is true that I took her to YABATECH and showed her places. What is not
true is that I deliberately took off from home because of any plan to do
anything bad to her. I took off from home that early to avoid traffic.
“When
she was in my office, she was the one telling me to be free with her. I
realised that I needed to lie down a little and did not want my shirt
to be rumpled. When I pulled it off, she even told me not to mind her
presence that since it was my office, I could do whatever I wanted.
“When
we first got to the office, she lay on my chest and was even playing
with my manhood. That was why I could not resist it. After we came back
from seeing the woman who was supposed to help with her admission, she
was about to go when I told her to give me a hug. It was that which now
led to the actual s*xual encounter.
“When
I realised that I could not resist her, I had to tell her to let me put
on a condom. The truth is that, while I was putting on a condom, she
stood by and waited. I did not actually penetrate. When she was saying
‘it’s enough, it’s enough’ and complaining that her tummy had started
hurting her, I stopped.”
Baruwa
explained that Shola’s father had sent a cryptic text message to him
(days later when he learnt of what happened to his daughter), saying
that he had learnt of what he did to his daughter.
“I
know I betrayed his trust but nobody would understand it was
consensual. I would have reached out to him to beg him if I think it
would solve the problem,” he said.
When
told that Shola went through more than a week of excruciating abdominal
pain, Baruwa explained that if Shola left him the day of the encounter
with any sign of hurt, he would have reached out to her to find out how
she was doing.
Two
days after PUNCH spoke with Baruwa, he was arrested by the police and
the case is being investigated at the Isokoko Police Division, Agege,
Lagos.
The
case has been reported at the Office of the Public Defender under the
Lagos State Ministry of Justice. The Director of the OPD, Mrs. Omotola
Rotimi, said the case would be followed to its logical conclusion.
Dr. Baruwa was arraigned before an Ikeja Magistrate’s Court, Lagos on Thursday.
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