MAY 5, 2013 was Onyinyechi Orakwuelum’s 18th birthday. It was a
day she turned an adult, going by the Nigerian constitution but it had left a
tragic mark in her life. It was a day she was pushed into committing an act she
had never imagined. She could perform. It was a day she allegedly stabbed a
19-year-old boy, Akinwale Ayobami, who she claimed wanted to rape her, to
death.
The teenager, Orakwuklum, who is currently being held at the
State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Iyaganku, Ibadan, where the
homicide section is trying to unravel the mystery of how the story of the two
classmates turned round, and led to the death of one of them.
Narrating her story, she said “ I am from Nkwele Ogidi in
Anambra. I finished from Saint Gabriel Commercial Secondary School, Mokola,
Ibadan, in 2011 but I am yet to have a result that will qualify me for
university education. I have registered for this year’s NECO.
“The deceased was my mate in secondary school but I didn’t
know him, closely because he was in commercial class with my friend, Funmbi,
while I was in Arts class. Ayobami didn’t finish from Saint Gabriel as he left
for another school.
“My parents moved to our personal house at Ologuneru community
in Ibadan, so I lost contact with my friends. One day, my mother came
home and told me that she saw my friend, Funmbi, and that they had also moved
to Ologuneru. I was happy and we reunited. She later gained admission into a
university. In April this year, she came to me and asked if I remembered
Ayobami, who was popularly called Ewizzy. She said they chatted on facebook and
that he told her that he was also living at Ologuneru, and had asked her to
meet him at a junction so that she could know his place.
“I told her that I could not recollect the name so she went
alone. The next time she wanted to go there, she asked me to follow her. I
initially refused, but she persuaded me. We got there and saw him. His
girlfriend was also there, lying on a couch. We relived our secondary school
days and he later requested for my number since we were living in the same
area. I gave him.
“We left and not too long after, he called me, saying that he
had been calling Funmbi’s number but it was switched off. He said he wanted to
know if I had got home. Funmbi was beside me then so she also answered because
her phone battery had gone flat by then.
“Since then, I did not hear from him, though there was a day I
missed his call, but I could not call him back as I had no credit on my phone.
“On my birthday on May 5, I went to help a lady in our
neighbourhood after coming back from church. When I checked my phone late , I
saw Ayobami’s call among others that I had missed. I called him back and while
chatting, I told him that day was my birthday . He congratulated me and said it
was worth celebrating. I told him I was only marking it.
“He asked where I was and I said Ologuneru, he then asked me to
join him at Ologuneru junction. I went there at about 7p.m. and I saw him come
out of a beer parlour. I didn’t know that he was already drunk. On getting to
his apartment, he took me through the back door. When I asked why, he
said the lock on the front door was bad so he locked it with a padlock.
“I told him I preferred to sit outside because it was pitch dark
inside. He opened the front door and I went in. We put on torchlights. I made a
call to a friend while he was busy on his laptop. Later, he made a call to his
mother. We started discussing about school days again and he then went to the
kitchen and offered me water. I told him I was o.k. and he went into the
kitchen again.”
It was at that point that Onyinyechi said the story changed. She
narrated further: “He came back and locked the front door with a padlock.
I asked him why he did that but he just sat beside me and said he wanted to
date me. I even thought he was joking, and I replied that ‘is that what we came
here to do?’ but he told me he was very serious. As he moved closer, I
perceived a strong smell of alcohol, then I knew he was drunk.
“I asked again: ‘AY, are you drunk?’ he replied that he was not
drunk, saying he meant what he said. I told him I could not date him and he
replied that if I could not date him, then he must have sex with me before I
leave. I told him to open the door for me to leave but he said I was not going
anywhere. I started pleading but he did not yield.
“The next thing he did was to pull off his trousers and I knew I
was in trouble because I could see he was aroused. He told me I could see that
he was in mood for sex and that he must have his way. I opened the sliding window screaming
‘somebody, please help me!, Somebody, please, save me!’. He came there, slapped
me, drew me back and locked the window. I started running round the sitting
room and he was pursuing me.
“He went to the kitchen and brought a knife, warning me not to
waste his time. He threatened to do something nasty to me if I did not yield to
him after counting from one to 10. He had said before that he loved his mother
so I begged him in the name of his mother, he did not yield ground. I begged
him in the name of God but he said he left God a long time ago and that he was
serving Ogun. He showed me the picture of a bird hanged on the wall and said
that was the symbol of his god. I also told him I was having my menses but he
said I should allow him to do what he wanted to do, saying that if his friends
should meet me in the house, they would take their turns with me.
“He lit a cigarette and started smoking. He started his
countdown but I knelt and was pleading. As he got to eight, I screamed the more
but he rushed at me and started struggling with me to remove the bum shorts I
was wearing underneath my long dress. In the process, he dropped the knife, and
at that moment of intense fear, I picked the knife and waved it at him in the
darkness. The next thing I heard was Yee! O ti gun mi (Oh! You have stabbed
me). I stood up, shivering. I searched for my phone because the entire place
was in topsy-turvy. Throughout the struggling, no one responded among his
neighbours, though he had earlier said that no one would respond to me as they
regard the occupants of his flat as ‘Dons’ who are dreaded.
“I reported at home and we went to the police station to report.
By the time we got back to the house, he was dead. It was in the morning that
it was seen clearly that the knife pierced his heart.”
Sunday Tribune gathered that the deceased’s mother had been so
distraught about his death that she had been calling for justice to be done to
her son’s killer. She was said to be separated from the boy’s father and had
remarried and given birth to other children while Ayobami was the only child
she had for the father. Police investigations also revealed that the man
Ayobami was living with in the flat was not related to him.
Confirming the report, the police image maker in Oyo State, DSP
Olabisi Clet-Ilobanafor said.
Reacting to the story, the Assistant Commissioner of police in
charge of the Criminal Investigation Department, Iyaganku, ACP Dasuki
Galadanchi said the matter was still being investigated.
“There is no witness yet to support the suspects’ story. On the
side too, dead bodies cannot talk. There was no witness on the side to
corroborate whether there was an attempted rape or not.”
“In line with the police strategy of the Inspector General of
police which encourages openness, transparency and accountability, we will go
deeper into investigations and get to the root of the matter. If she’s found
culpable, she’ll be charged to court accordingly. We are for justice.”
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