A 21-year-old student has been
hospitalised, after she was allegedly pushed down from the third floor
of a building in Lagos, following a disagreement with a man she met on
the social network, Facebook.
The News Agency of Nigeria
reports that Akabugu Nkiruka sustained multiple injuries, including a
pelvis fracture, and was undergoing surgery at the General Hospital,
Marina, Lagos, on Tuesday.
Nkiruka, a Linguistics student of the University of Lagos, told NAN on her hospital bed that she met the young man through the social media, barely a week before the November 1 incident.
She told NAN that the
26-year-old man (name withheld) last Wednesday invited her to a night
club in Apapa from where they ended up in his family home at 1004
Estate, Victoria Island, Lagos.
She noted that the young man had earlier
talked about sex on the phone prior to the outing but she told him she
was menstruating.
Nkiruka said on getting to the house, the man tore her dress and tried to rape her.
According to Nkiruka, the man thereafter
pushed her down from the third floor of the building because she
refused to have sex with him.
When contacted, the man’s mother, who was at home on the night of the incident, however, told NAN that she was not aware of what happened.
She said she slept around 10pm, while the disagreement between the couple started much later.
The mother, who pleaded anonymity, said
she paid part of the hospital bill immediately after Nkiruka was
admitted, and even tried to transfer her to a private hospital.
“I took her as our own daughter and so, I can do anything that will make her recover quickly,’’ she added.
She insisted that her preliminary
inquiry indicated that Nkiruka was not pushed by her son as alleged, but
that she jumped on her own in the ensuing scuffle.
When contacted, the Divisional Police Officer of Bar Beach, Victoria Island, Lagos, Mr. Fayoade Adegoke, told NAN that Nkiruka wrote in her statement that she jumped on her own, in order to escape being raped.
Adegoke said he ordered his men to
convey the victim to the hospital immediately after he was informed of
the incident by security guards in the area.
The DPO said the suspect was released on bail, pending further investigation into the matter.
NAN recalls that seven young
men, including two who met a 24-year-old post-graduate student, Cynthia
Osokogu, on facebook, are currently facing trial for allegedly raping
and killing her in Lagos earlier this year.
Culled from Punch