The Police Vs Queen Okoye

Comfort Obi

This story made the main headline news of PM News, a popular Lagos evening newspaper, on a day the Yobe State Governor, Senator Mamman Ali, died. His death was reduced to the second lead.
With a bold headline, "Woman Strips To Protest Rape by Police," it tells the bizarre story of Queen Okoye.
On Saturday, January 24, she went to the Area ‘G’ Police Command, Ogba, Lagos. Her mission was to protest her alleged rape by policemen from the Command. Wearing a pair of blue jeans trousers, and a pink blouse, she stood by the Command’s gate and stripped herself to her bra and pants. Then, she put a live bird (a pigeon) in her mouth, brought out a cross, and other fetish objects, and started chanting incantations. A large crowd heard her story, as the police watched helplessly. According to her, she was raped by three policemen from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, SARS, of the Ogba Command at the Command headquarter. How? Her story.
She says she had gone to the Command to solicit their support to recover her money, the sum of N30,000, from her boyfriend, Rasheed. She said the boyfriend took the money from her and that all efforts to make him pay back failed. Reporting to the police was her last option. They listened and asked her to come back the next day. She did, but was told to wait till 10 p.m by which time Rasheed would have come home so they would swoop on him. So, she waited. And this is where her story got interesting.
Okoye says the three policemen charmed her and put her to sleep. And when she woke up at about 2.30 a.m, she discovered that she had been raped, and blood was dripping from her vagina. She said if given the opportunity, she would identify the three alleged rapists. She didn’t quite say if she reported the case to the police, but she said that she has since been making efforts to bring them to book to no avail. She also said that she had gone to Panti, a Criminal Investigation Division, but no dice. And now, she says she is two months pregnant, hence her action now? “Since the police refused to attend to me because I have nobody, I decided to go spiritual so that they will pay for their action.”
This story sounds serious but Mobolaji Odesanya, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, and the Commander of the Division does not think so. His initial reaction was to dismiss Okoye as a mentally deranged woman. He told journalists that it was reported to him that a mad woman came to the Command’s gate on Saturday. When the reporters persisted, he added: “If truly she was raped, let her come and identity those who committed the heinous crime. But as far as I’m concerned, no such case came to my knowledge." This Commander is not serious, or is he?
He sounds prejudiced, already, without investigating the case, so, how can he be trusted to be fair? He says no such case has come to him. So, how did he know that Okoye is a mad woman? Did he take her to a psychiatric hospital? Or, is he a psychiatrist? Or was he just, as is the case with some men, dismissing the alleged rape as not important? Having said that, I find Okoye’s story intriguing. Not many Nigerian women, to avoid being stigmatised, have the courage to say they were raped. And I find loopholes in her story.
What did the policemen use to charm her? She never mentioned anywhere that she was given food, or even water to drink by the police. Or, did they smoke something before which affected her? She said she went to the Command to solicit for help to recover her money from her boyfriend. Why did she not go to the Counter to make a statement? The men who raped her do not stay at the Counter, so where did she meet them? She said she was asked to stay till 10 p.m. Where was she kept? And where did she sleep off? When she woke up and saw blood dripping from her vagina, what did she do? Did she raise an alarm? And did she report the rape thereafter? How come three men raped her and she was not aware until she woke up and saw blood? Rape is violent, and painful, how come she didn’t wake up from sleep as she was being raped by three men – one after the other? How and when did she leave the station? Where did she clean up? Did the rapists give her water to clean up, and, thereafter, smuggled her out? What time? But let me repeat that Okoye’s allegation is serious. It is not enough to dismiss her as a mad woman. It has to be proved that she is mad.
The story has done a great damage to the image of the police. The reaction I have heard so far is: That is how the police behave. Yes, there are bad eggs in the police. And I am not saying that Okoye’s story is beyond such bad eggs. In deed, a couple of them have been known to have raped women in their custody. But the Nigerian Police also boasts of decent, well-bred officers, men and women, and they are in the majority.
Okoye’s case is easy to investigate, But the Area "G" Command mishandled it. While she was making that scene at the gate, she would have been nicely pacified and taken in. An investigation should have started immediately. She said she can identify the men. She should be given the opportunity to do that. What's her story? Did she come to report her boyfriend? Who did she report to? Did she meet the alleged rapists? Has she visited the station to report the rape action? And did she go to Panti to report? Is there a Rasheed? And is she pregnant, if so by whom? Is she normal, or is she a psychiatric case? A psychiatric doctor should confirm. Instead of the Commander of the Ogba Division to get down to work, he dismisses the embarrassing scene with a wave of the hand. This is sad. But it is not irredeemable.
The police should look for Queen Okoye, wherever she is, and investigate her allegations. If it is true, the culprits should be brought to book. But if she is a mad woman, well, what else but to send her to hospital. Whichever way, let the findings make the same headline news as the first story.