Two female students of the Lagos State University have accused the policemen at Iba Division of unprofessionalism after they were jointly beaten blue black by their landlord, his wife and sons.
The two students identified simply as Uduoko and Gift said they were brutalised on the 12th and 13th of August 2024 after querying the landlord for dumping refuse in front of their apartment.
The students also accused the Dean of Students Affairs, Dr Fatai, of shielding the landlord identified simply as Mr Idowu who owns apartment in the Iba area of Lagos.
Narrating their ordeal in a voice note obtained by BuzzCapital, one of the brutalised female students, Uduoko said her father who came to intervene was also assaulted adding that they were almost killed.
She said the landlady and her gang locked them inside their house after attempting to break in and tearing their window nets.
Udouko said, “I and my friend, we were assaulted and brutalised on August 12 and 13. On the evening of 12th August, we got back from school and met dustbin in front of our house.”
Wondering why dustbin was dumped if front of their apartment, they said after asking the landlord about it, he told them LAWMA officials had come and that was why they put it there.
“I told the woman (landlord’s wife). We did not know LAWMA came I’ve not been around. The next thing the woman stood saying ‘You’re a very stupid girl, you this Ashawo girl. I’ve been waiting for this day, you’re going to die today you’re very stupid. Next thing, she slapped me and started beating me. She hit me where I did surgery. My friend had to drag me away.”
She said after they went inside the house and locked their door and windows to avoid further violence, the woman came banging on their windows and called them unprintable names.
“Around 11pm, her sons also came and were banging my door and wanted to break in.”
She said the policemen she contacted said they were not near and couldn’t come to their rescue. “We were scared and shaking.”
She narrated that when they called LASU’s Acting Dean of Students Affairs, Dr Fatai, he said it was night and he would see what he could do the next day.
“He (the Dean) later came to our hostel, he did not even try to talk in our favour or take us out of the scene because of our lives, he started saying bad things about us that we are very stupid for calling him at that kind of time to come and attend to this kind of matter. In front of him, those people tore our net, window and threw blocks at us. I ran into the kitchen and my friend ran to the bathroom to hide. The man did not care. We did not see him again. He drove off. We called him he did not pick.”
“Around 5:40am, the next day, we wanted to go to the police station but we found that we were locked inside our apartment. Why? What if we had died that night? What if someone entered through the window and tried to kill us? What if someone set us ablaze? They put off the light and water. We called the Dean again, he did not pick.
“My dad came and plead with them as an elderly person. My dad asked us to apologise to her so that we can leave the place peacefully. As I was going out, the landlord took my apartment key. As he collected it, he said something to one of them, and they wiped my friend with something like a thick wire. They wiped me on my head, I was seeing stars. In front of my father, he was pleading with them. They did not listen. They were brutalising us.”
“We were almost killed,” she said.
She said she and her friend sustained severe injuries.
Pictures seen by BuzzCapital showed several scars on the female students’ bodies.
She said the police at Iba Police station had refused to handle the matter professionally.
“They removed the woman from the police station without our notice and according to what I heard, they collected the sum of N200,000 and removed them (the suspects) and they started asking (us) for settlement that we should remove the matter from station.”
