On May 9, 2017, a 19-year-old girl, Bisola (not real name), was sent on an errand by her mother in their Akowonjo, Lagos neighbourhood. But she lost N7,000 in the process.
What happened next has now become the controversy surrounding her allegation that she was raped by a 36-year-old foodstuff trader, Henry, whom she approached for help.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that Bisola’s mother, a noodle seller on their street, had sent her to buy packs of the product but she said she lost the money in the process.
She told our correspondent, “If I went back home and told my mother that I lost the N7,000, I did not know what could have happened. But I know she would nearly kill me.
“So, I approached Henry to give me anything he had to assist me. I didn’t know him before. But he said all the money he had was at home. He said I could follow him home to get the money. I did not suspect anything, so, I followed him to his house at Unity Estate.”
According to Bisola, the home she followed Henry to is a “face-me-I-face-you” apartment which was deserted when they got there that afternoon.
She alleged that Henry offered her drinks and food which she declined because she wanted to get back home on time.
She told Saturday PUNCH that Henry wasted no time when he told her that he would indeed give her the money if she allowed him to have sex with her.
“I told him that I could not do that. If he wanted to help me, he could help me without asking me for sex. I had never done it before. But before I could leave, he grabbed me and raped me even though I begged him not to.”
Bisola said when he was done with her, he resorted to begging her as she cried.
She explained that Henry also gave her a toilet roll to clean up her bleeding.
“He told me to give him the blood-soaked tissue paper but I insisted on taking it home with me. He then gave me the N7,000.”
Bisola was said to have wrapped the tissue in a nylon and took it home.
The girl’s parents who had been worried sick over her whereabouts said they asked her where she went to but she said nothing about the lost money or the alleged rape.
But one of her siblings was said to have spotted the blood-soaked tissue paper, which she initially described as her menstrual flow.
She later told her parents the truth.
Bisola’s father explained that he promptly reported the case to the police at Shasha.
Henry, who was later arrested said he indeed had sex with Bisola, whom he described as an acquaintance.
Asked if he used protection, he said he did not.
According to Henry, he did not rape Bisola but that he insisted on having sex with her because he had already agreed to give her the money.
His case was later transferred to the Lagos State Police Headquarters.
On May 16, Henry was charged with sexual assault at the Ogba Chief Magistrate’s Court, Lagos.
He pleaded not guilty to one count of rape and was remanded in prison custody pending when he would be able to perfect his bail.
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