7 men rape 13-yr-old in Lagos

A medical doctor, Mistura Shogunle, on Wednesday, narrated before an Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court how a 13-year-old girl was allegedly gang-raped by seven men in her neighbourhood.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Shogunle testified at the trial of a 20-year-old fashion designer, Rasheed Fashola, for conspiracy and defilement of a girl.

Fashola had pleaded not guilty to the two-count charge.

Led in evidence by state counsel, Mrs Olasunbo Abiodun-Muniru, the doctor working at the Mirabel Centre (a sexual assault referral centre), said the minor came to the centre to seek medical attention on Sept. 28, 2020, a day after she was allegedly defiled.

“The client said on Sept. 27, 2020, which was a Sunday, her father sent her on an errand, and seven boys in the neighbourhood stopped her.

“They dragged her into an uncompleted building, her mouth was covered with a handkerchief and they took turns to rape her through unprotected penile intercourse into her vagina,” Shogunle said.

She said the survivor was calm and clinically stable during the medical examination and that she had no obvious physical injuries.

“There were, however, significant genital findings. The labia majora was normal but the labia minora (inner lips of the genital) had a bruise.

The doctor, also a certified forensic sexual assault examiner, testified that she asked the survivor’s father, who accompanied her, to throw more light on what happened to his daughter.

She said the father informed her that he sent his daughter on an errand and expected her to return home early but, instead, saw her with two men who came to his residence to tell him that his daughter had been defiled.

According to prosecution, Fashola, alongside others at large, committed the offence at about 8 pm on Sept. 27, 2020, in an uncompleted building at Oluwashina Junction, Itire, Lagos State. (NAN)