Kunle Falayi
The worst nightmare of a 27-year-old model,
Busayomi Adegun, became a reality on Tuesday
morning, as she went to work only to end up being a
victim of a vicious attack by robbers who molested
her in what Lagosians call a ‘one-chance’ bus.
According to Adegun, who has shared the details of
what happened on her Facebook account, the attack
took place between Fadeyi, along Ikorodu Road where
she boarded the Danfo bus heading to Oshodi.
Adegun’s story has attracted more than 5,000
comments within 24 hours, as she explained that she
had become traumatised to the point where she just
simply wanted to close her eyes and forget what had
been done to her.
She said during the attack, she nearly lost her eyes
when the hoodlums poured ground pepper in her eyes
and on her breast in order to disorientate her.
Adegun, an Ekiti State indigene, said, “I woke up
today with a smile on my face with full strength and a
vision to start a beautiful day. But it all turned out to
be a bad crying day, that I can never forget in my life.
“On my way to work this morning, I boarded an
Oshodi bus from Fadeyi. Immediately I boarded the
bus, the guy on my left side started complaining that
the one at the back was trying to pick his pocket. Next
thing (I knew), he changed position to my right side
and said ‘Onipanu wa o’. Immediately, the one at the
back hooked my neck and said ‘don’t shout’.
“The one beside the driver said, ‘Allow her to lie down
on the floor’. They dragged me flat to the floor. They
collected my bag and started asking questions:
‘Where do you work? Which school? Which course?
What level?’ They asked for my name, my state. I told
them I was a student. I kept answering the questions.”
According to Adegun, one of the eight assailants,
picked her ATM card and handed it to another one.
She said they asked for her PIN and as soon as she
told them, the bus stopped and they dropped off the
one who got the ATM card.
She said, “I started crying (wondering) if this is
actually my end. Are they going to use me? Are they
going to kill me? So many things started coming into
my mind. I remembered my mum and my siblings.
The 27 years ago story (sic) that can’t be forgotten in
my family.
“I kept begging them not to hurt me. The man in front
said if they found certain amount in my account, they
won’t hurt me. But if I gave them a wrong PIN or
(there was) no money in my account, they would call
my family or they would rape me till I lost my last
breath.
“I started praying silently calling for mercy. They
were eight men. One was busy touching my breast,
one hooked my neck down, one used his legs to pin
my legs together. I kept crying, calling God to save
me.”
Adegun said at this point, the one that had dropped
earlier called them on the phone, then one in the front
passed something to another at the back.
According to her account, one of the men ordered her
to close her eyes but she said she decided that if she
was going to die, she would see what they were about
to do to her.
She said “Next thing (I knew) it was pepper. He put
pepper in my two eyes, my breast and he was trying to
open my trousers zip but he could not. I was
screaming and could not see.
“I was trying to guide my eyes so that he would not
put more pepper in it. I was holding on to my jeans so
that he would not put pepper in my vagina, thinking
they still wanted to rape me after they collected my
phones, power bank, my sister’s money in my bag
and change I had there.”
Adegun said after several traumatising minutes of
screaming and struggling to keep her trousers on, the
robbers eventually dropped her around Coker Bus
Stop on the Oshodi-Apapa Expressway.
But the trauma is not something she would forget for
a very long time, she said.
“I am still not myself. I have never been handled like
that in my life. I just want to close my eyes and forget
everything but I can’t. It keeps playing in my head
and is hurting me more,” Adegun said.
Adegun told our correspondent that by the time she
got home, the robbers had withdrawn her entire
savings from her modelling job, a total of N174,00 0
“They took all my savings. They made withdrawal
twice,” she explained.
Many reactions to Adegun’s story have raised
questions on whether criminals in the state have
resorted to operating early in the morning when most
police patrol may still be scanty.
But the police have said Adegun had refused to report
the case. As of Thursday when our correspondent
spoke with her, she said she had initially gone to a
police station at Ikorodu where she lived but was told
to go to Onipanu Police Division, under whose
jurisdication the attack occurred.
The spokesperson for the Lagos State Police
Command, Dolapo Badmus, told our correspondent
that she had made attempt to reach out to Adegun but
had failed.
She said, “I will like to implore residents of the state
that social media is not the best place to report
crimes. When people fail to report cases, we assume
it did not happen. We want her to come forward.
“But on whether we have fewer police presence in the
early morning allowing criminals to operate easily, I
will like to correct that impression. What we do in
Lagos is visibility policing. There is no way you will
go 500 meters without seeing a police vehicle. Lagos
is cosmopolitan.
“We cannot eradicate all crimes, but we can bring
them to the barest minimum. When people report
cases, it will allow us to build an operational strategy
and combat crime.”
http://www.punchng.com/lost-savings-nearly-lost-eyes-lady-attacked-one-chance-boys-lagos-bus/

Visibility policing ko, invisible police ni. Does that useless Dolapo Badmus knows what is 500 meters? The guy must be high on Sambisa Weed.