the biggest rape scandal of the decade, the case of Lotanna Odunze-Igwe
and Mustapha Audu, one of the sons of Prince Abubakar Audu, a former
two-time governor of Kogi State who passed on last Sunday is an
interesting one.
Sunday exposed horrible details of how she repeatedly suffered sexual
abuse in the hands of Mustapha, his brothers, his cousin and his
friends. Her tweets, laced with graphic details of brutal sexual assault
came moments after news of Prince Audu’s death filtered into the
Nigerian media. Her story, gory and dehumanising as
she
portrayed it, immediately drew the sympathy of a wide section of the
Nigerian public with condemnation and attacks targeted at the alleged
perpetrators of what many thought was only possible in seedy x-rated
Hollywood productions.
All through this moment, the accused
were silent. Their side of the story was completely lost in the social
media mob that was already screaming blue murder! Perhaps, the accused
sons of the late Prince Audu were too engrossed mourning the demise of
their father to be bothered about allegations and condemnations that had
gone viral in the social media. Just yesterday, Friday November 27,
2015, the accuser once again released another bombshell, this time a
detailed blog account of her ordeal in the hands of Mustapha, his
brothers, his cousins, and his friends. It was a chilling story that
sparked further sympathy towards the “victim” and more condemnation
towards the alleged perpetrators.
In this exclusive interview, Publisher of SIGNAL,
Ohimai Amaize and Editor of SIGNAL, Yemi Adebowale sat down in a chat
somewhere in an apartment in Asokoro, Abuja face to face with the man in
the eye of the storm, Mustapaha Abubakar Audu. This is his story:
Who is ‘Sugabelly’ to you?
Lotanna
as her real name is called, is someone who we were colleagues together
while I was serving at an IT firm in Abuja called Alteq. She was a staff
at Alteq. We were colleagues for a while and at some point we dated for
about two months. I came back to Nigeria in 2006, and it was at Alteq I
first met her. I’m not sure how long she had worked there before I came
to the company for my NYSC. It was a long time ago. I was about 24
then. We talked like every other person.
There was a time she
had a party for the office, I thought it was a party for the office but
it was her birthday party, her 18th birthday party. It was in March of
that year. I didn’t go for it. I usually don’t go to office parties. I
had another business. I was working at my company and at the IT firm as
well. So one day at the office she came to me and harassed me that I
missed her party and I said, oh, don’t worry I will make it up to you. I
will take you out for sharwarma and I took her to 212; then they used
to sell sharwarma. This was the first time I took her out. There are
emails to corroborate this.
From then on we started talking.
She was a very interesting personality. She is very brilliant and she
reads a lot of books. I read a lot of books too and I don’t meet people
who read a lot of book. I used to read a lot of fantasy books. All these
Game of Thrones people are watching as movies now, I read them as books
like ten years ago. Knights of Shallaman, Wheel of Time, Lord of the
Rings, Inheritance Cycle, many many books I read years ago and there
were very few people who knew these things. She was one of them. She
read a lot and she wrote. She was a very brilliant writer; in fact, I
think that was why she was working as someone’s secretary at the office.
She used to write a lot of letters for the company.
Claims
have emerged from her that as at January of 2007 I was in a relationship
with her and doing all sorts of wicked things to her. Just like now, in
December, precisely December 17, 2006, I lost my mum. I was in the UK. I
watched my mum die. I loved my mum. I brought her body back to Nigeria,
so just like now I was going through a period of grief. So it wasn’t
possible all the things she is claiming that I did. I would be mourning.
- How long did your relationship (affair) with her last?
Our
relationship lasted like a month and a half. Not even up to two months.
I found out she was sleeping with my friends. She slept with a couple
of my friends. I discovered and told her about it. She told me she loved
me, she wanted to marry me and was madly and deeply in love with me.
And I told her it’s not possible, we can’t get married because I am not
at the stage where I wanted to be married. And you’ve had something to
do with my friends, so the relationship ended.
While we were in
the relationship, she had told me things about her mum, that she hated
her mum, her mum wasn’t there for her and stuff like that. She sent me
an email once making reference to her having visions of violent rape the
first time that we had something physically. She said she had visions
of violent rape from a past memory and that we weren’t close enough for
her to tell me the details. On one occasion then when we spoke on the
phone, she said I shouldn’t abandon her, and then she told me that her
mum’s boyfriend raped her. She said a lot of negative things about her
mum. This was part of the reason I didn’t want to release these emails
to protect her.
But the main reason I am doing this is because I
got a call today, someone told me that her friends disclosed that she’s
being planning this for while, she is actually writing a book and
planning to finish a book, she wants to start an NGO, she wants to
appeal to the US government about surviving rape in Africa and she wants
to use my family, because of my family’s political name to get
traction. I heard she is getting influential people involved, I hear she
has involved the lady behind the Bring Back Our Girls campaign, Dr. Oby
Ezekwesili. Dr. Ezekwesili reminds me of my mum. She reminds me of
someone who should have been my mum and if someone said something about
your son, you shouldn’t immediately go to the world and say “Oh, you are
this or that.” At least call your son, hear him out. And this is not
even about me wanting to say anything to defend myself.
Please
read the communication between me and this girl. Everytime I sent her a
message, it was always about “How are you doing? Hope you are doing
okay? Don’t be too nasty in college. But I know you are very smart and
you will do well.” Even in the emails, I mentioned that I encouraged
her. She even sent me a message on Facebook apologizing for flirting
with my friends, how she loves me and I told her, it’s okay. It’s not
the end of the world. And now, people are saying I’m such a beast and
I’m such a monster. You didn’t even talk to me. You didn’t even ask me…
These things are so horrific. What kind of person can actually do these
things? Not only did I do that and I did it with my younger brother that
was just 15 back then? I did that with my older brother who was about
30 years old then? And this older brother is not my immediate older
brother. He is two brothers ahead of me. Then my cousin? Then my
friends? Then the Nigeria Police Force? This is such a movie.
- How is your family reacting to this?
Of
course it’s very hard. We are mourning. She’s been releasing these this
for a while. She’s been doing this for a while but my family has kept
quiet all along because we know the truth. Yes, some of my family
members are really shaken right now. We are grieving. I have just been
orphaned. I loved my dad. My dad is a hero. Anybody from Kogi State
knows that. Look at his burial. How many people have received his
burial? Look at the whole country? If we were such wicked people, if my
dad was a monster, would people react? There was a rumour that my dad
had risen. If you saw the people the way they were praying and
rejoicing. And now this girl has used this unfortunate incident to
capitalize in painting my family as evil…
- How long have you been married?
I
have been married for like six years now. I got married December 15,
2009. And that was when my problem with her really started; when she
found out I got married.
- Have you ever raped anyone?
Common, why would I do that? It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. I
can never and will never support such heinous act. Common! It’s not even
a question you ask a normal person. It’s like asking, have you
committed murder before? Because it’s such an inhuman thing! And I
understand why people would do this and she’s brilliant. Because she
knows human beings are emotional and sentimental. Play on their
intelligence. Play on the fact that women have been raped before and for
us men, we hardly speak up. I am not saying men are angels. I’m not
saying I am an angel. But I have never raped anyone in my life before. I
am happily married. I have three little daughters. I can’t even imagine
it. God!
You know what? I am going to step out for those who
have been accused falsely. There are a lot of people who have been
falsely accused. You know, because of my last name, I am fortunate to
have the opportunity to speak up. You see, people don’t even need to
hear me speak. Just read the conversation I had with this lady and you
can read her blog. It’s just a blog. You can compare the two. In my
email conversations with her, you can tell that I have genuine feelings
for her and she has genuine feelings for me. We are communicating as
human beings. Then you read this blog and it’s something else. In her
mails to me, you will read her asking about me, my brothers, my friends,
my cousins, telling me how she knows that I’m so hardworking and that
I’m a good person. I don’t understand how that translates to a blog that
says I was such a terrorist.
- What do you think she wants from you?
It’s
fame. It’s simple. Fame. She has skills and in her heart, she’s found
out that you know what? My blog isn’t really getting a lot of traction,
I’ve been working on this story, I’ve been writing a book, so let me put
out this story first. First, she got some Twitter people to put it up,
when that didn’t get as much traction, she resorted to this. That was
the groundwork for this. Now she has put this on her blog and everybody
is going to her blog, she is about to launch a book on surviving rape in
Africa; all of this is some sort of elaborate plan to make money and
fame to the detriment of someone who hasn’t done anything to her.
Whatever it is that’s bothering her, I think her mum should speak to
her. Her mum honestly needs to speak to her. Her being in the US and
being away might not be the best solution. She should actually have a
sit down. What is bothering her? She told me she hates her mum, that her
mum’s boyfriend raped her. Let her talk to her mum about that.
- What is your next line of action?
It
has to be a legal action. I’m not doing this because I want money from
her. The suit I am going to carry out against her has nothing to do with
money. I want her to write a public apology, publish it in the
newspaper, take down her blog and retract all she said against me. I
want all those she has lied to, to know she lied against me. She needs
to come out and tell the world: “I lied about this. These people are
innocent of all I said against them.” That’s what I want from her.
And going forward, I want people like Dr. Ezekwesili to think before
they act. People called me to draw my attention to her tweets. I thought
she was fighting for a cause. I thought she was a mother. I know her
sons and they know me. Chine and Chuba used to play football together
with me every weekend. They know me. I am not a rapist. I had a mother
and my mother would not be proud of Dr. Ezekwesili. What would have been
her first reaction if this same girl accused her sons of rape? Would
she have gone first to Twitter to condemn them? Would she have gone
first to Afe Babalola SAN? If that would be her first reaction, then I
must confess, she must be a really terrible mother. Is her cause real?
What cause is she on? Is it because Bring Back Our Girls is no longer
working?
Dr. Ezekwesili, please read the emails. Your sons will
tell you the same. They are my friends. They know I’m not a rapist.
Have you approached me? Have you said who is the person? Let me approach
him? Let me reach out? Please someone give me his number. She didn’t do
this, instead she went to Afe Babalola. Chuba is my good friend. If
they said this about Chuba, would she go to Afe Babalola? Please answer
me?
I never did anything to Lotanna, read the emails. Don’t
even listen to me, please read the emails. Since she’s made claims, read
our mail conversations after the events she alleged occurred had
happened. Read her timelines. Some of these terrible events were
occurring and she wasn’t talking about it? She’s emailing me and I’m
emailing her and not for once was it mentioned? Common! No, that just
means nothing was actually going on except our normal conversation. I
had other people in the office that left, some for the UK that I still
chat with. We were colleagues!
- What is your advise to men out there who find themselves in your kind of situation?
I
have to stand up for those who have been victimized, those who have
been condemned even before they were given a chance to defend
themselves. I will be fighting, like my father who has always been a
fighter. And I am a winner. I will fight this and anyone who believes
that what I have done is so terrible based on the allegations, I will
ask you, please come and ask me.
Come and hear my own. If you
are not satisfied then you can do anything. The truth is out there.
Nobody right now in the country knows what I am feeling right now, the
trauma and the stress. Everyone is calling either to condole with me or
to condemn me for what was alleged against me. People are asking, what
did you do? I am under tremendous pressure. At the same time, I am
grieving. I don’t have a mum anymore and I don’t have a dad. A lot is
going on. I can’t even breathe. No one cares. Everyone just sees me now
as a monster; this guy, his family… and its very painful and it could
cause a long-term damage not just for me.
Unfortunately, I am
not active in the social media and even if I was, I don’t think it is
appropriate to just expose her and her family issues. That’s why I kept
quiet. But to all those out there who are quick to jump to conclusion
when you hear one side of the story, please have a rethink. It’s not
fair. I was long guilty before anybody decided to contact me to hear my
side of the story. I thank those who refused to jump to conclusion, but
for the many majorities who did, it’s not right, especially given this
time that I am grieving. I just got orphaned. It is very very sad. She
probably did this because she knows I will protect her. I have children
and I know what it’s like. I will not release everything she sent to me.
But please read the emails and Facebook conversation.
I will
also like to appeal to mothers today. They need to take responsibility
for their children. I am certain that there are many people sitting and
rotting in jail because of this. I will not go down quietly. I will not
let them tarnish the good name and image my father built. I will not let
someone my family’s grief as an opportunity to launch a social or a
media career. I will not allow it to happen.
I will start a
legal process and I will sue everyone who decides to make me their next
launch pad. Once this is over and the dust settles down, I will be
starting an NGO for those who have been falsely accused and for those
who have been falsely accused by authorities bigger than them and for
those who have been falsely accused of rape. I believe they need a voice
and I will be that voice.