Residents of Ogida quarters in Benin City, Edo State, were shocked last
Saturday when they woke to hear a house wife (names withheld) shouting
and pleading for help.
They rushed to the house only to discover that the woman was raped by
three young men who stormed the house at about 3am. The woman’s husband,
who was tied by the guys, was hiding under the bed.
The suspects Peter Anigboro (25 years old), Lucky Williams (22) and
Olise Friday, forced the door of the residence of the victims open with
an impoverished gun and a dagger. They immediately went for the husband,
tied his legs and hands after which he was pushed under the bed.
After taking care of the husband, they went for the wife who was their original target.
It was gathered by Vanguard that the robbers have been monitoring her
movement for some days before they struck last Saturday. It was learnt
that they requested her to declare the money she sold that day from her
recharge card business which she quickly obliged.
The robbers further requested for recharge cards, hand sets and other
valuables. While they were threatening, the victim pleaded that they
should not kill her. But to her greatest shock, they pounced on her and
started undressing her, warning that she will be killed if she tried to
resist them.
The leader of the gang, Peter Anikoro was the first to rape her and
while he was doing that, his mask pulled off and that was when the
victim saw the face of her attacker. Peter is a neighour who resides in
the opposite building.
However, after taking his turn, others followed suit.
As if the suspects were destined to meet their waterloo that same day,
they attacked another house around that same Ogida quarters where they
met a 60 year-old woman and attempted to rape her too. The woman pleaded
with them, and though she was not raped, they fiddled with her private
part and carted away hand sets and cash from the house.
Luck ran out with the rampaging robbers when Peter took other members of
the gang to his uncle’s house at Siluko road to rob. Unfortunately for
them, they could not gain access to the house due to the protector.
Through the window, they were able to cart away a hand set. But some
body spotted them and raised an alarm which attracted the attention of
members of the vigilante group in the area. They gave the robbers a hot
chase and with the arrival of policemen on patrol, they were
apprehended.
Leader of the gang Peter, confessed thus: “I don’t have a job so what I
did that day was to call two of my friends and told them that we are
going to operate that night. We met around 9pm in a palmwine joint close
to the house. We moved to the place around 3am when everybody had gone
to bed. We were monitoring her movement from the wine bar”.
Asked why they raped the woman, Peter said, “It was devil’s work. We did not know when we did it”.
