Three girls were raped on Monday during the EndSARS protest in Ekiti State.
The state’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Olawale Fapohunda, has condemned the action which occured around Fajuyi area of Ado-Ekiti.
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The Commissioner for Justice said, “Rape and robbery cannot be the values of EndSARS protesters.”
Fapohunda made this known in a statement yesterday in Ado Ekiti while receiving mothers of the three girls who were allegedly gang-raped around Fajuyi area of Ado-Ekiti yesterday night.
The Attorney-General said it was regrettable that the legitimate protests against impunity by SARS have now been hijacked by undesirable elements that rape, assault, and rob innocent citizens.
“It is becoming obvious that government cannot continue to allow the good people of Ekiti State suffer in this manner,” he said.
Fapohunda, however, advised the women to immediately take the assaulted girls to the Ekiti State Sexual Assault Referral Centre – the Moremi Clinic located in the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital for a medical check-up.
According to him, “it may now be necessary to alert all those participating in the protests, specifically girls and women to note that there exist hoodlums in their midst whose agenda is to rape and rob.”
The mother of one of the girls who spoke on behalf of the other two mothers told the Attorney-General that their daughters joined the protests out of conviction of the cause and said they had appealed to the girls to be careful.
According to her, she decided to come to see the Attorney-General first rather than the police because of the campaign by the Attorney-General against sexual violence in the state.
She lamented that they were horrified that their daughters would be raped by those who were fighting the same cause.
She then pleaded with the Attorney-General to ensure that the rapists were apprehended and prosecuted.
Responding to a question on whether the rapists will be apprehended, Fapohunda said the first step was to seek medical support for the girls.
The girls would then be debriefed for the purpose of police investigation.
