days, Shola (not real name) was in pain. The abdominal pain she endured felt as
if a knife got stuck in her, she told Saturday PUNCH.
She was scared but she had no choice but to endure the pain since she couldn’t
imagine telling her parents the unimaginable trauma she had been subjected to
that led to the pains she was going through.
they handed me over to, to help process my admission, had raped me?” Shola
said.
couldn’t continue hiding her ordeal, especially when the pains had
become unbearable. Shola’s parents eventually got to know what
their daughter had passed through in the quest of trying to become an
undergraduate.
Eighteen-year-old Shola is one of the numerous hopeful candidates, wishing to
secure admission into the University of Lagos. 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.
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.
could secure admission and someone told me she they could be helped to gain
admission into the Olabisi Onabanjo University with that score.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
and told my daughter to come back home,” he said.
home that came back. 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 actually 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.
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.
the way, Baruwa was showing her different parts of town, telling her about
places she did not know.
She alleged:
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.
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.
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.
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.”
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 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.
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.”
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:
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.
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.”
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:
happen there? I don’t know anybody there. If it happens again, where would I
run to?”
after speaking with Shola and he gave his version of the encounter.
According to him, he indeed had a sexual encounter with Shola but it was
“consensual.”
The lecturer, who seemed to be in his early 40s, said 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:
that happened. She was a chatty girl, who did not show any shyness.
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.
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.
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 sexual encounter.
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.”
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.
was consensual. I would have reached out to him to beg him if I think it would
solve the problem,” he said.
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 this chat with Baruwa, he was arrested by the police and the
case is being investigated at the Isokoko Police Division, Agege, Lagos.
The case has also 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.
Director of the Esther Child Rights Foundation, Esther Ogwu, a social worker
handling the case, said when the case was first reported to her, the health of
the girl was her immediate concern.
She said:
Referral Centre in Lagos so that she could get comprehensive treatment. This
case is just another reason for girls and young women to be cautious of the
issue of sexual assault.
is necessary for girls to be aware and know what to do when in a potentially
dangerous situation where they may be assaulted.
her. I knew he would say it was consensual, but I suspect that this is not the
first time he would do such thing. Let the law take its course because we don’t
know how many other girls are being saved because this case is coming out to
the public.”
Magistrate’s Court, Lagos on Thursday. He has been remanded at the Kirikiri
Prison.