Ekiti State Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Olawale Fapohunda, said on Tuesday that no fewer than three girls were gangraped at the Fajuyi Park area of the state capital on Sunday by hoodlums who had hijacked the EndSARS protest.
Fapohunda, who frowned at the development, said, “Rape and robbery cannot be the values of EndSARS protesters. It may now be necessary to alert all those participating in the protests, specifically girls and women to note that there exists hoodlums in their midst whose agenda is to rape and rob.
“it is regrettable that the legitimate protests against impunity by SARS has now been hijacked by undesirable elements who rape, assault and rob innocent citizens.
“It is becoming obvious that government cannot continue to allow the good people of Ekiti State suffer in this manner.”
He spoke in Ado Ekiti while receiving the mothers of the three victims of the gangrape, where he advised them to immediately take the assaulted girls to the Ekiti State Sexual Assault Referral Centre – the Moremi Clinic, located in the Ekiti State Teaching hospital for medical check-up.
Fapohunda said, “The rapists will be apprehended. The first step is to seek medical support for the girls. The girls will then be debriefed for the purpose of police investigation.”
The mother of one of the girls, who spoke on behalf of the three mothers of the victims, said that their daughters joined the protests out of conviction of the cause and said they had appealed to the girls several times to be careful.
She said that the embattled mother had decided to visit the Attorney-General rather than the police because of the campaign by the state Ministry of Justice against sexual violence in the state.
The woman said, “We are horrified that our daughters could be raped by those they with who they were fighting the same cause. We hereby plead with the Attorney-General to ensure that the rapists were apprehended and prosecuted”.
PUNCH