Alleged Rape: Police detain executive director in Lagos

The Lagos State Police Command has confirmed that an Executive Director with ARM Pensions, Abisola Onigbogi, is in its custody over an allegation of rape levelled against him by one of his colleagues, Ogochukwu Odogwu.

Ms Odogwu, 36, who also works at the company as the human resource partner, in a leaked letter personally addressed to an individual identified simply as Opeyemi, recounted how she found herself naked in a hotel with her pubic area “sore”.

She said on the night of 18 July, after an office party, she was tipsy. Her friend reportedly approached Mr Onigbogi to take her to her house since they live in the same neighbourhood around Chevron Drive in Lekki, Lagos.

Ms Odogwu said rather than take her to her home, Mr Onigbogi reportedly took her to the Limeridge Hotel located at Chevron Drive in Lekki.

But an official of the hotel had denied that Ms Odogwu was unconscious when she was brought to the hotel, saying the duo went in like “boyfriend and girlfriend.”

Police confirm arrest

The Police Public Relations Officer in Lagos, Benjamin Hundeyin, in a telephone interview with our reporter on Wednesday, told PREMIUM TIMES that Mr Onigbogi was in police custody.

“The outcome of our investigation will determine if he will go to court or not,” the spokesperson said.

“But I can confirm he is in our custody.”

How it happened

According to Ms Odogwu, a friend, Francisca Azie, had opened a hard drink- Jameson Whiskey, and that she took some and mixed it with coke. She said at a point she had to stand up at intervals to coordinate the serving of food as a member of the planning committee, leaving “the drink, food and other personal effects in the care of Damilola Oluyori, who is a colleague and one I am very friendly with.”

Ms Odogwu said her last memory of the party was about 7.30 p.m.

She said: “However, Damilola claimed that I mentioned to her that I was tipsy and could not drive. So she offered to find a way for me to go home and then approached Abisola Onigbogi to drop me off since he lived around the same axis as me.

“I live at Femi Okunnu Phase 4 Estate, Jakande, lekki. Along with the Jameson whiskey, which was like ¼ of a plastic cup, I had one cocktail from the bar, and that is the last thing I remembered. I lost total memory of every conversation and activity as my last memory of the night was from 7.30 p.m.

“My entire memory was wiped out, which was very unusual even for someone who might have drunk excessively, which I didn’t and have quite a good alcohol tolerance from precedent.”

She said when she woke up around 3 a.m., she found out she was in a hotel with clothes and a wig in a pile, saying her private parts were sore and “I felt like someone had invaded me.”

Ms Odogwu further said: “I walked out of the room, looked around for a clue of the name of the hotel to even have a sense of where I was, I saw the name Limeridge hotel, I googled it, and I found that it’s on Chevron drive.

“I ask the receptionist and security man to help me get a taxi so I can go home. I further checked my WhatsApp messages and I saw that Abisola, the perpetrator, had sent me a message that he was with my laptop bag and ID Card. Damilola had sent me a couple of messages that sounded frantic wanting to know if I was okay and if Abisola dropped me at home. I sent her a message to tell her that I do not understand why my memory is wiped out and it’s unusual.”

Odogwu confronts Onigbogi

Ms Odogwu said when she asked Mr Onigbogi what transpired she said she was told that she was incoherent and could not give her address, and that was why she was reportedly taken to the hotel.

“He also denied knowledge of what ensued in the hotel room when she was unconscious,” she said.

Meanwhile, Ms Odogwu said she returned to the hotel to see the CCTV footage the next day, saying the receptionist showed her evidence that Mr Onigbogi paid for the hotel room at 10:05 p.m.

She said in the footage played for her, she was seen leaning on Mr Onigbogi “and he was holding my shoes and a hand on my back guiding me into the hotel at about 15.52 and was seen leaving at 17:36”.

Ms Odogwu said the time on the CCTV at the hotel was not West African Time but that the time interval was about 1 hour 45 minutes Mr Onigbogi was with her in the hotel room.

She said she reported the situation to her family and had a rape kit test done at Island Maternity on Friday. “I made a formal report at the Ikoyi Police Station on Saturday morning.”

“My private part was bruised and I have been in pain. I have also formally reported to the Head of HR, who is my boss with the MD and another executive director in copy. My life has been disrupted badly. I am a single mother with two kids and my mental and physical state has been impacted by this incident, and I need to take care and show up for my kids in all of this,” she said.

Hotel reacts

However, the Operations Manager at Limeridge Hotel, Owowumi Ewarawon, told PREMIUM TIMES that Ms Odogwu was conscious when she walked into the hotel, and that if she was seen to be unconscious, the facility would not have accommodated her and the man that brought her.

“She walked in by herself,” she said, adding: “Please come in person with your ID to extract the facts. This is not a hospital. We can never allow anyone to enter unconsciously.”

She said Ms Udogwu and Mr Onigbogi went to the second floor, noting that if the front desk had suspected anything, it would have raised an alarm.

“They came in like a boyfriend and girlfriend. That’s the way I saw it. Even while entering the room, from the CCTV footage, it was as if she entered first,” the operations manager told this newspaper.