•Suspect’s employer should face charges for criminal negligence – SAN
A human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), has called on the Lagos State Government and the Nigeria Police to investigate the recent allegations of rape and attempted rape made against Andrew Ominnikoron, a driver of Bus Rapid Transit vehicle, who was fingered in the death of a 22-year-old fashion designer, Bamise Ayanwole.
Falana also said the Lagos Bus Services Limited should be sued for criminal negligence for allowing its vehicle to be used for criminal purposes.
Bamise was said to have been on her way to visit her brother after the close of work on February 26, when she boarded the BRT vehicle at Chevron Bus Stop.
Another alleged victim, who did not disclose her identity, had accused the driver of raping her on a BRT vehicle on her way to Jakande, along the Lekki-Epe Expressway on November 25, 2021.
On Wednesday, another alleged victim, one Onyinyechi Anoke, alleged that Ominnikoron attempted to rape her on a BRT vehicle on December 29, 2021, on her way home after visiting a friend.
Anoke, a medical doctor who narrated her experience on Facebook, shared a call log showing a phone which caller identification app showed belonged to one ‘Andrew Nice’.
“Baba (suspect) dragged me by the hands, and as usual, I didn’t struggle but followed him to the back row. By now, it was established in my head that this is most likely going to end as an attempted but failed rape case (I didn’t even think for a second that it was going to be successful. My fight response was on a high and I racked my brain for all the possible things I could do to temporarily subdue him and be hitting the bus till people from outside noticed me,” she said.
But Falana said the state could be dealing with a serial rapist if the fresh allegations were confirmed to be true.
“Each of the fresh allegations will have to be investigated and if confirmed, the BRT driver has to be charged again and again. With respect to Bamise and the other victims, the management of the company has to be sued for aggravated damages for allowing the vehicle to be used for criminal purposes. The company would have to be sued for criminal negligence and damages arising from criminal negligence.
“Those who are coming out now would have to be invited to assist the police in getting to the root of this incident. Every citizen is required to assist the police. I mean they are making these disclosures in social media but they would now have to go further. At the same time, the police can also trace them because clearly, it has introduced a new dimension to the Bamise case.
“If the stories are confirmed, it means we are dealing with a serial rapist and we may even have more victims that those who have shown up because rape is something for which people do not want to be stigmatised, but the few people that have cried out will help the police to get to the root of the crime to some extent. For all Lagosians the question of vigilance is also important; but for the fact that Bamise was vigilant and alerted her friend, it would have been just a case of a dead body found somewhere.”
The Senior Advocate of Nigeria, who wondered why the government had yet to install and power CCTV cameras in the state about five years after it announced that Lagos would have about 10,000 CCTV cameras, said the call by the state government on commuters not to board BRT vehicles that were not lit at night “is neither here nor there because reckless drivers can switch off the light at any time”.
“What the Bamise incident has thrown up is a challenge to the BRT to have a central monitoring system. They must install CCTV in each of their buses and have a central monitoring system, in addition to toll numbers which commuters would have to memorise so that if there is any suspicion, the police can be alerted to prevent such recklessness.
“It is almost confirmed now that the suspect is a serial rapist whose identity and criminality ought to have been known by now. This driver may not be the only one involved in the criminal enterprise. The challenge, therefore, requires a holistic review of the transport system in the state”
However, another human rights lawyer, Liborous Oshoma, has urged the state government not to be hasty in pressing charges against the suspect as there may be other issues related to the case that required further and thorough investigation.
He also said the latest rape allegations would embolden others who felt they had been violated by the suspect to speak up.
Oshoma said, “The government should not be in a hurry to charge somebody like this without thoroughly investigating. This might give room for loopholes. So, for further witnesses to come up, I think it would be better for the security agencies to further investigate this matter, establish all these allegations against him and it would give them the opportunity to charge him appropriately. If they don’t do that, it will deny the victims that sense of justice.”
Meanwhile, the convener of Lagos4Lagos and a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Dr Abdul-Azeez Adediran, also known as Jandor, has called on the state government to ensure that justice was served in the case.
Adediran, who spoke when he paid the family of the deceased a condolence visit, said the death of Bamise was one too many.
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