Boy, 16, runs mad after sexual assault

•Police arrest hotelier

By Christopher Oji

A 16-year-old secondary school student has run mad after he was sexually molested by a popular Lagos hotelier at Bucknor, Isheri Osun, Lagos State.

The incident, which rattled his parents, reportedly started before last Christmas when the student confided in his mother that he had a confession to make before the New Year. The mother obliged her son and pledged to be confidential.

However, the woman, who could not bear the confession of her son, raised the alarm after he said the owner of a popular hotel in the area lured him and four fellow students to his hotel and made love to them through the anus.

The victim told his mother that, after having carnal penetration with them, the hotelier warned that, if they disclosed what transpired to anybody, they would die.

  The shocked mother said that, a few minutes after her son opened up to her, he started misbehaving, talking to himself like an insane person.

According to the father of the teenager, a spare parts dealer at Ladipo auto spare parts market in Lagos, Edozie Christian, 44, “My son started behaving like a mad person after the confession. We rushed him to a prayer house and after some days, when he became a little bit sober, we took him to Isheri Osun Police Station, where he made a statement and narrated his ugly encounter with the hotelier.

“Shockingly, after he disclosed the names of his fellow students that took him to meet the chief executive officer of the hotel simply identified as Macdon, he relapsed and started behaving like a mad person. The police went to invite the students he mentioned but succeeded in getting only one of them who boldly came with a laptop and gave detailed accounts of how the hotelier has been molesting them sexually.

“He told detectives that they went to the hotel to partake in a Tik-Tok programme only for the owner of the hotel, usually addressed as CEO, to lure them inside one of the rooms with a promise to pay them N5,000 after having sex with them. The student said, from all indications, he has been doing it to many other students who he usually paid and after using them, he would clean himself and the boy’s anus with a white handkerchief and threaten them never to discuss the encounter with anybody and, if they do, they would die.

“After they made statements to the police at Isheri Osun Police Station, the condition of my son worsened and I had to take him to Mirabel Centre at the General Hospital, Ikeja, where he was examined by doctors. The doctors later told us that there were signs of abuse in the anus but it did not affect his brain. They advised that we take him to a psychiatric hospital for further examination, stating that he may be suffering with trauma from the abuse.

“When we got to the psychiatric hospital, they also examined him and advised that we should take him to another hospital meant for teenagers, which we did. After that, they gave us medications and advised that we keep close checks on him, assuring us that he would be okay after some time.   

“However, we have been giving him the medications but he is getting worse daily. On the part of the police, initially, they told us that all the efforts they made to invite the owner of the hotel failed, but he later sent his lawyer to talk with them.

“Another shock that befell us was that a few days later, the police invited me, that the owner of the hotel had transferred the case to Zone 2, Onikan, without even reporting to their station. At this stage, they continued pressurizing me to report to their station, that they would take me to Zone 2, and the police rebuffed all efforts I made to know the unit handling the case at the zone.

“I then decided to personally report myself to the AIG at Zone 2, who swiftly directed his men to arrest the owner of the hotel for explanations. Unfortunately, a team of crack and armed policemen that stormed the hotel later could not arrest him but succeeded in arresting some of his staff.”

It was reliably learned that while the police were in the hotel frantically looking for the owner, several calls were made to Zone 2 by some yet-to-be-disclosed prominent individuals and top policemen from Abuja to the head of the unit investigating the case to allow sleeping dogs lie by withdrawing his men from the hotel. Reports also said that while the operation was going on at the hotel, another team of policemen from Isheri Osun station arrived there and started pleading for reprieve for the suspect, promising to hand him over to the police at Zone 2 on a given date.

However, reports said when the AIG Zone 2, Adegoke Fayoade, got hint of these subtle efforts to stall the arrest of the suspect, he swiftly swung into action and gave his men marching orders to arrest and thoroughly interrogate him over the allegations. Luckily, according to police sources, the owner of the hotel was arrested and interrogated by detectives.

It was learnt that, when detectives brought the complainant and the suspect together, the teenager who was gesticulating and talking wildly to nobody in particular pointed at the owner of the hotel and called his name while still behaving like a lunatic.

Police sources also said that, after his arrest, the suspect, who denied the allegations, claimed that he earlier reported the case at Zone 2, Onikan, when the police at Isheri Osun were not cooperating with him. 

Sources said that detectives discovered that he actually reported the case in one of the units at Zone 2, but when the case file was presented, it was discovered that it was doctored. According to a police source, “We discovered that somebody tampered with statements made by both the complainant and another student at Isheri Osun Police Station. Also, the report presented by doctors at the Mirable Centre in Ikeja turned out to be different from what the father of the teenager claimed, showing that it was also doctored.”

Meanwhile, the suspect is still in detention pending when detectives will conclude investigations. AIG Fayoade confirmed the report, stating that investigations were still ongoing.