UNILAG Eight and their distraught victim

A UNIVERSITY of Lagos (UNILAG) student, 17, has told of how eight fellow students  gang-raped her, filmed the act and blackmailed her with it. Five of the suspects have been arraigned before a court. The others are being sought.

The victim was afraid of telling her story, but her friend helped her to unload her burden. She was hospitalised for days. The parents of some of the suspects offered her parents between N3m and N5m to settle the matter, but they refused to sell their dignity.

Justice Sururat Soladoye of the Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court has adjourned the hearing till March 18. Rights activists and all lovers of justice should pay attention to this case, which is a vivid expression of man’s inhumanity to man, pure savagery and bestiality.

The parents who tried to bribe the victim’s family are shameless and useless – even to their children who took a fiendish pleasure in hurting their fellow student. Where is that common humanity that separates us from animals in the jungle? We need to find it and restore it through the instrumentality of law and justice as well as good parenting..