Owolabi Akinlolu, a Nigeria Police Force officer, has been placed under remand in jail due to rape allegations.
The officer is accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl in his Lagos State office.
After “one chance” criminals stole his victim’s phone, Akinlolu, an officer posted to the Ogudu Police Station in Lagos, reportedly promised to help her retrieve it.
Akintolu reportedly overheard the young girl telling her mother about her experience with phone theft at her workplace and volunteered to help find the phone.
The victim described her experience to reporters, saying, “On June 29, Officer Owolabi called my mother on her phone and told her that he had arrested the person with my phone and that I should go to his police station.” When I got there, I was told that they had made a tracking error and that the man who had been arrested wasn’t the one who had my phone.
“I was called into the officer’s office by his personal assistant, who also gave me directions.” I greeted him as I entered his office, stood up to shut the door, and put the key in my pocket. “Sir, why did you lock the door?” I shouted.
As he started taking off my clothes, I screamed at him, and he drew a pistol, cocked it, and threatened to shoot me if I screamed. After that, he began to harass me, and when I struggled, he raped me and used the gun to hit the back of my head.
“I noticed his phone ringing, and it was my mother,” the teenager stated. However, he told me that since I didn’t have a phone with me, I should tell her that I didn’t make it to his office and that going forward, I should be reporting at his office by 12 pm every day during school break or on my way home from school. I simply fell into his trap after he had been observing me for two years.
In July 2024, the victim’s mother, Aramide Olupona, claimed that the police were trying to conceal the charge.
“What about the suspect’s wife and other family members who have visited my shop to implore me that he would soon retire? My daughter was raped. “Is it because I’m a poor woman?” she inquired.
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But on Tuesday, the prosecution’s lawyer requested that the prisoner be remanded to Magistrate Court 11.
In a seven-paragraph brief supporting this motion, the prosecution argued that defilement is a crime that violates Section 137 of the Lagos State 2015 Criminal Law.
At the request of the prosecution, Magistrate O.O. Fagboun remanded the defendant to the Maximum Correctional Center in Kirikiri.
The trial and subsequent processes were then postponed by the magistrate until March 11, 2025.
