The Father of Akinyele rape victim, the 18-year-old Mary Daramola, who was raped to death at Alabama the community in Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State last week Tuesday, have developed mental problems.
A source who pleaded anonymity said the father collapsed about three times on the day of the incident and that since he carried the lifeless body of his daughter to the mortuary he began to speak incoherently.
The source said the family of the case is so pathetic as the mother of the deceased had been battling mental problem for several years and it was her daughter who had been taking care of her before she was raped and killed.
A youth leader in the community, Rasaq Ahmed, also said that it was not the first time the prime suspect, Toheeb Ganiyu, had been involved in rape. Ahmed alleged that just last year, Toheeb spent three weeks at the Moniya police station after he defiled a seven-year-old child.
“The case was later settled and he gave the father of the girl N10,000. Before that incident, he had also been accused of raping another girl in the community. “In fact, he had been banished from the community due to his terrible behaviour, but we didn’t know when he sneaked in and committed the latest incident,” Ahmed said.
However, the traditional ruler of the community, Chief Olakanmi Olaniyan, has claimed that more than one suspect was involved in the act that led to the death of Mary. The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Olugbenga Fadeyi, in reaction to the incident, had said only one suspect was involved, but Chief Olaniyan said it was not possible for just the suspect to carry an 18-year-old lady into the room without any form of resistance.
Chief Olaniyan also said the lady was not drugged as claimed but was severely beaten before she was gang-raped. “The actual crime happened around 10:00 p.m. on Monday, August 24, when Mary went out to buy a diaper for a toddler in her household.
“They grabbed her and took her into the room; she could not have gone there willingly. In fact, there were marks on her body, which showed she was forcefully raped and not by just one person,” he noted. Chief Olaniyan, therefore, called on the police to work more on the suspect so that his collaborators could also be apprehended.
However, in a statement on Monday night, SP Fadeyi clarified that the case was not a case of ritual killing. He said information received from the divisional police officer (DPO) of Moniya revealed that on Monday, August 24, at about 8:00 p.m., one Toheeb Ganiyu of Alabama town in Akinyele Local Government Area of the state, was alleged to have taken Mary Daramola to his house and gave her a beer before having carnal knowledge of her.
“Mary was later met dead with traces of semen in her private part and bloodstain in her mouth. The suspect was later arrested and a preliminary investigation was carried out at the Divisional Police Headquarters, Moniya, where his statement was obtained under caution before being transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Iyaganku, for discreet investigation, where he is presently under custody.
“The Commissioner of Police wishes to further reiterate that it was not a case of ritual killing as widely publicized on the social media, but a case of suspected murder that occurred between two lovers that eventually turned sour thereafter.”