Policemen attached to the Orile Police Division in Lagos State have
apprehended two gangsters for allegedly raping and killing an
18-year-old commercial sex worker, Oluwatosin Ami. PUNCH Metro
reports that the suspects, John-Paul Chukwuebuka, 19; and Ebuka Chimudi,
22; belonged to a gang which specialized in luring young ladies to
hotels with the aim of dispossessing them of their belongings and raping
them.
According to police authorities, on April 10, 2013, two members of
the gang posed as customers and visited the Happy Day Hotel, Orile.
Oluwatosin was approached by the suspects and she took them into her
room at the hotel which she secured at the cost of N3, 500 per day.The
suspects overpowered Oluwatosin and stuffed a cloth in her mouth to
prevent her from screaming. She was also bound by the hands, while the
suspects took turns in raping her.Afterwards, the suspects stole her
phone and money, locked her inside the room, took the key and tossed it
into a canal.
A relative of the deceased said the following morning, when the hotel
attendants wanted to clean the hotel rooms, they knocked on
Oluwatosin's door but there was no response. It was learnt that the
attendants then used a spare key to open the door and the corpse of
Oluwatosin was found.
Her father, Babatunde, told PUNCH Metro that the matter was reported
at the Orile Police Station and his daughter’s corpse was taken to the
Mainland Hospital, Yaba. Babatunde said he had no idea that his daughter
was a commercial sex worker. He said the family had been looking for
her since December last year and had reported her missing at the Adeniji
Adele Police Division on the Lagos Island. He said:
“My daughter was in JSS3 in 2012 when she dropped out of school. She
said she wanted to be a sales girl and we got a job for her, but she did
not stay there. Suddenly, in December last year, she left the house and
did not return home. Her mother and I called her on the telephone
several times, but she would say she was fine and putting up in a
friend’s place. She used to visit her grandmother, but in January, she
stopped picking calls. All attempts to get her proved abortive. We did
not hear anything from her until we received a telephone call a few days
ago, saying her corpse had been found in a hotel.”
The mother of the deceased, Muibat, lamented that Oluwatosin was her
third child that would die within five years. She said the deceased was
her first born and she had only two children remaining. She said she did
her best as a parent and wondered why her daughter chose such a
lifestyle.
When Punch correspondent approached the hotel for comment, the
employee at the front desk said the management had given instruction
that journalists should not be spoken to. However, an employee of the
hotel told the police that the rule of the house was that more than two
patrons should not be in a room at the same time. The employee said he
was not aware that Oluwatosin had taken two people into her room.
The suspects, in their statements, confessed to killing Oluwatosin,
but said it was by mistake. They said they only played a minor role in
the crime as the prime suspects were still at large. The police
explained that 19-year-old Chukwuebuka was arrested by members of the
Odua Peoples Congress at City Point Hotel, Apapa, where he had gone to
commit a similar crime. Through Chukwuebuka’s confession, Chimudi was
arrested. Chukwuebuka identified other suspects as Williams, Victor,
Joshua and Kojo. He said:
“We have been doing this thing for a while now. We have operated in
brothels in Ajegunle and Kirikiri. I have raped over five girls, but
none of them died. We operate in hotels where there is loud music and
many rooms. We usually use rooms that are not located on the ground
floor so if a victim shouts, no one would hear her.”
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