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Gang rape duo arrested after bloggers force cops into action

Nigerian detectives succumb to online pressure
28/09/2011 11:19 AM

ARRESTS: Nigerian police arrested two men in connection with a gang rape after outraged bloggers speak out

NIGERIAN POLICE have arrested two students in connection with a gang rape after a pair of outraged bloggers forced them into action.

The two men are thought to have been part of a gang of five men who brutally raped a young woman in a video that was later posted online.

In the video, thought to be recorded on the Albia State university campus, the women can be heard pleading with her attackers to kill her, according to reports.

It is believed that the perpetrators recorded the attack and then distributed it to other students at the university.
However, police were forced to close the investigation because the victim, who can be identified in the footage, did not come forward.

But bloggers Linda Ikeji and Sugarbelly were so horrified by the decision to close the case that they offered a reward to anyone with information.

Together they garnered such overwhelming support online that members of the Nigerian parliament called for the case to be reopened.

Three days later, the online uproar and clues posted on forums helped Albia State detectives make the arrests.
However, the Nigerian Government and university officials deny the incident took place in University or that anyone involved was a student of the school.

Despite the arrests, activists are using the media attention surrounding this incident to draw attention to what they see as an “under-reported epidemic of rape” in Nigeria, AP reports.

“The woman who wants to report rape does not have the confidence in the justice system in Nigeria," said Akiyode-Afolabi, executive director of the Women Advocates Research and Documentation Centre.

"The police are not accountable to the people. There is a lot of impunity on the issue of rape and sexual violence in Nigeria."

Federal police statistics on a website called Nigeria Police Watch indicate 1,952 rapes were reported in 2009, a low number in relation to the more than 155 million people in Nigeria. A 2006 Amnesty International study on sexual violence in the country indicated reporting by crime victims was “inconsistent.”

Posted on: 28/09/2011 11:19 AM

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Rape is Murder

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Anonymous

In my view the criminal offence of rape should be treated as serious as murder as it sentences the victim to a lifetime of torment and torture. Some women are never able to form normal relationships again and their lives are in total ruins which causes a knock on effect to their families and friends. In the African and Caribbean community rape is all too common and goes too often unreported. I have heard so many firsthand stories. I remember an ex girlfriend was raped by a black man who worked as a barber and she poured out her heart crying to me. I advised her to report the matter to the police and she was horrified at prospect of going though such an ordeal and the attention it would bring. She simply did not want to pursue churches she just wanted it to go away but it had a detrimental effect on her life. It is time black men stand up and defend and support our black women. But too often they fail to take rape seriously and so do the authorities leaving our women as prey to this vicious beast. These boys who raped this lady should be prosecuted based on the video evidence alone. Murder cases have been pursued and conviction secured on such evidence so why not rape. The full force of the law should come down on these rapists thus sending out a signal to all rapist in Nigeria that rape is not tolerated. Don’t these people realise that they have mother’s Aunties, sisters and daughters that could be victims. .....

Sat, 2011-10-01 02:21