Wasiu, Serial Rapist Arrested

  *Serial rapist locked up 14-yr-old girl in his room for hours

A 13-year-old girl, yesterday, gave a chilling account of how she was abducted, raped and threatened with death by a suspected serial rapist arrested, weekend, by policemen attached to Ilasamaja division in Lagos. The incident, according to the teenager identified simply as Onyinye, a Junior Secondary School 3 student of a school around Ilasamaja area, occurred on May 24.

It took several hours of persuasion before Onyinye’s parents allowed her to tell journalists her experience, as they expressed fears that Wasiu and members of his confraternity would attack them thereafter. Vanguard gathered that there were several other teenage girls, who had suffered same fate as Onyinye in the neighbourhood.

One of them was a 14-year-old girl, whom he allegedly locked up in his room for several hours. When the victim (names withheld) attempted to raise alarm, she was reportedly beaten to a stupor before being repeatedly raped.

‘He beat up a good Samaritan’

In this interview, Onyinye alleged that the suspect, identified simply as Wasiu, whom everyone in the area dreaded as he was said to be the leader of a confraternity, accosted her while going to purchase soup ingredients at about 4.30p.m.

She said: “He ordered me to follow him. I was scared and pleaded with him to leave me alone. A passer-by who witnessed it cautioned him but he beat the man up. While the fight was going on, I ran back home and lied to my mother that the woman she sent me to was not around.

“Later that day, at about 7.30p.m., my mother sent me to go and buy a loaf of bread for the next day’s breakfast. As I was going, someone grabbed me from behind and took me to an apartment where I was raped. I knew it was Brother Wasiu from the sound of his voice, when he threatened to kill me if I told anyone.

“When he was done, he said he would kill my father and my mother if they dared to challenge him. When I told him that the N200 I was given to buy bread with was missing, he gave me another N200 note and asked me to leave. As I was leaving, I saw his face clearly.

“But I could not tell my mother. I only confided in a classmate, who told her mother. It was not until Brother Wasiu was arrested that my friend’s mother revealed what happened to my mother. She was scared of being attacked by Brother Wasiu.”

Confirming his arrest, spokesperson for Lagos State Police Command, Superintendent Dolapo Badmus, said: “He has been arrested for rape. He is currently undergoing interrogation with our gender desk unit. He would be prosecuted in court.” Meanwhile, residents of Ilasa and Isolo went wild in jubilation following Wasiu’s arrest, Saturday.