BEATEN & BRUISED: This Final-year LASU Student is crying for justice

Udouko Ememabasi, a final-year student at the Lagos State University (LASU), has cried out for justice after enduring an attack on the alleged order of her landlord, Idowu Shodipo, and his mother.

In a chat with Daily Trust, Ememabasi said trouble started when she and her friend, Eseh Gift Uduoghene, returned home at about 8pm on August 12, 2024, and found a waste bin in front of their room.

“We asked our neighbour if he knew who put the dustbin there. He said it was our landlord. We went to meet the landlord but met his mother in her shop and asked why her son did that.”

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“She said someone came around that was why they put it there and I told the woman I was not aware. Immediately, the woman stood up and started insulting me. The next thing she did was to slap me and start beating me. She hit me on the spot where I did my surgery,” she said.

She said her friend had to drag her away from the scene.

She said: “We went inside the house and locked the door and all the windows. She started hitting our door and banging at our window. She called me all sorts of names.

“People that didn’t know what was happening came and started hitting my door, banging at my window. At about 10:30pm to 11:00pm, her sons were back, they started banging at my door, trying to melt my iron door to break into the house.”

The student said when they contacted the police they said they were far away and could not make it.

“They couldn’t come to our rescue. We were scared that these people were going to harm us because nobody was there to rescue us. I called my father but he stays in Ogun state, so he could not come down that night,” she said.

The student said on August 13, around 5pm, she and her friend prepared to go to the police station to report the matter, but discovered the door to their apartment had been padlocked  from outside.

She said: “What if we had died overnight? What if someone had entered through the window to kill us? What would have happened? Or what if somebody had tried to set fire to set us ablaze? We wouldn’t have been able to escape because we were locked inside. They put off the light and water.”

The final year student continued: “I called my father, who came to plead with them that they should look at him as an elderly person. They deceived my dad that they had agreed.

“He told me to go and apologize to them even if I did nothing wrong. As I went out, the landlord collected my apartment key, after which he sent one of his boys, who hit my friend and I with something like an electric barb wire.

“I became dizzy. My head was banging at that moment. This happened in front of my father. He pleaded with them again but they did not listen to my dad. The mother told them to beat us. They hit us with different things.

“My friend tried to run outside, but there were already plenty of people outside as if it was planned. A lot of people were outside. They were beating my friend and she was bleeding from her nose. We were brutalized.”

The acting Dean, Students’ Affairs said he did the best he could to prevent the ladies from being brutalized.

Dr Surajudeen Fatai, Dean of Students’ Affairs at LASU, briefly narrated his encounter at the hostel when he responded to the distress call.

“I did what I was supposed to do as Dean of student affairs. When I was called late in the night, I went there. They could have killed me if I had supported the students because I met over 50 people in the compound. I was prostrating on the floor begging and pleading on their behalf,” he said.

The final-year student added that the matter was reported at the Adolf Police Station, Iba.

While seeking justice, she said: “I am calling on the relevant authorities to please step in because my life is being threatened because I got the police to arrest those involved in the case. The landlord and his mother have threatened to deal with me.”

But when contacted, Shodipo dismissed the allegations saying Ememabasi hit his mother first.

“She slapped my mother. The matter is in court and we have been ordered not to comment until the second hearing.

“Even when the school management came around and we told them the beginning of the issue, they backed out. I didn’t touch her; she slapped an elderly 70-year-old woman. It is not true that her life is being threatened. I was locked up in the station for five days,” he said.

Ememabasi, however, denied slapping the landlord’s mother.

“It is not true. That’s what she told her son that made them assault and brutalize my friend and me,” she said.

Efforts to reach SP Benjamin Hundeyin, the Lagos State police command’s spokesperson, were not successful as he didn’t respond to calls or text messages.