Oyo crime-fighting outfit, Operation Burst, denies allegation of rape
The Oyo State anti-crime outfit nicknamed Operation Burst, has said that it had investigated a case of rape leveled against one of its operatives by a student of the Eruwa Polytechnic, Ibadan and found it to be baseless.
The outfit however said the officer involved had been recommended for disciplinary measures by the Nigeria Army for abandoning his duty post.
The crime-fighting outfit made this known in a release issued by the outfit’s Second in Command, CSP Elijah Bawa, at the weekend.
According to the Operation Burst, immediately the outfit was intimated with the allegation of rape against the said student, he dispatched an investigation team to Eruwa.
He said the team met with the Divisional Police Officer for the Eruwa Division, DSP Kayode Adigun who disclosed that the 23-year old Mass Communication student of the school lodged a complaint with the command that she had been raped by the soldier who was also an operative of the anti-crime outfit.
Upon being told that she had not destroyed what could amount to an evidence if the case was true, said the outfit’s Second in Command, the DPO took the lady complainant to the Eruwa General Hospital for medical examination, the result of which proved negative.
When interrogated about the process of the rape, said the Operation Burst, the allegedly raped lady said she had left her hostel and was seeing her friend off at about 2230 hrs and when she was returning, she was accosted by the Operation Burst operative who accused her of being a cultist.
According to him, the lady alleged that the soldier took her under a Dongoyaro tree where he asked her series of questions, ordered her to remove her clothes to affirm whether she had tattoos of cultists on her.
“The test on the lady was conducted by a Dr. Jesimi Gamdu and all the physical manifestations of rape were not found on her. The soldier will however be charged for abandoning his duty post in the night without permission against standing instructions in the Operation Burst’s code of conduct,” he said.
