A prominent civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has asked the National Human Rights Commission, NHRC; office of the Inspector General of Police; office of the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice and the National Agency Against Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), to take over investigation into the alleged sexual attacks and physical torture of Kogi State beauty queen, Miss Elizabeth Oyeniyi, by a serving commissioner, Abdulmuminu Danga.
The group insisted that the matter must not be swept under the carpet of impunity.
Women’s Rights Organisations in the country had earlier called on Kogi State Governor Alhaji Yahaya Bello, to as a matter of urgency suspend the Commissioner for Water Resources, Abdulmumuni Danga, for allegedly beating and raping a lady in the state until the investigation is concluded, adding that this will enable a level playing-ground for investigation.
HURIWA on its lamented that the Kogi State Governor, Alhaji Yahaya Bello, has not taken drastic measures to punish his staff accused of kidnapping and raping a citizen only because she criticised him on the social media.
“Kogi State has just had a tumultuous election in which violence took the centre stage with armed political thugs using violence to return the All Progressives Congress governor to power,” HURIWA claimed in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko and made available to DAILY POST on Sunday.
“It is alleged that most of the newly-appointed commissioners may have worked as political thugs or those who procured disposable armed political thugs who manipulated that shameful election in which even the Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Adamu publicly admitted that armed political thugs were better armed than the regular police.
“It is usually the practice in most states that after elections those who helped to instal the governor are rewarded. Kogi is not an exception.
“So it may be practically impossible for the governor of Kogi State to professionally supervise any independent investigation into the allegations of abduction, false imprisonment and alleged rape of a citizen.
“HURIWA has learnt that governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State has ordered accelerated investigation into the alleged battering and rape of a beauty queen, Elizabeth Oyeniyi, by the state Commissioner for Water Resources, Abdumumini Danga.
“However, we are not comfortable with this politically tainted investigation ordered by the governor. This probe will end up in a cover up.
“The best bet is for the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice to step in and request the office of the Inspector General of Police Mohammed Adamu to investigate the allegations and for the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice to personally file a matter of rape if the investigations reach a considered conclusion that indeed the beauty queen was raped by the Kogi state commissioner.
“The Inspector General of Police and the Director General of Department of States Services should protect this victim of a high profile Kogi State official who has the capacity to harm the victim for daring to report him to the relevant authorities after she faced the ordeals of physical and psychological tortures.”
HURIWA recalled that the beauty Queen, Miss, Oyeniyi had on March 29, 2020, made a post on her Facebook page about Danga not taking care of his sibling, who is her friend. It was gathered that the post did not go down well with Danga and he allegedly ordered his boys to look for Oyeniyi and beat her up.
The victim told an Abuja human rights activist that after she was beaten by the boys, she was ordered to strip naked and apologise to the commissioner thereafter. The 23-year-old beauty queen added that the commissioner took her to a hotel and raped her.
She said, “I left Abuja for Okene to stay with my friend because of the spread of the COVID-19 and on getting there, she explained to me that the commissioner, who is her stepbrother, had not been taking care of her.
“I saw a post made by a local comedian showing the commissioner distributing foodstuffs to people and I made a post that charity should begin at home and that the commissioner should take care of his household before taking care of outsiders.
“The comedian saw the post and screenshot it after insulting me in the comment section for making that kind of post. An hour later, some guys came to my friend’s house to pick us up on the instructions of the commissioner and they took us to Lokoja.
“On getting to Lokoja, I was beaten up by the commissioner and his boys; I was asked to strip naked and a video was made and my friend and I were made to apologise under duress to his fans and him that what I posted about him was wrong. He later took me to a hotel for the night and forcefully had sex with me.
“I have been living in fear of what they might do to me, because they threatened to pour acid on me and take my life. The commissioner is threatening me to come out and drop the case. I want justice to be served, because he treated me like an animal and said nobody would fight for me.”
HURIWA has therefore asked the Federal Government not to stand by and watch this victim of alleged rape further threatened by the commissioner even as the rights group said the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari should take interest in this matter by ensuring that the Minister of Women Affairs should step in and provide technical support for this beauty queen who is reportedly afraid for her life.”
