A prosecution witness, Babatunde Edu, on Tuesday narrated before an Ikeja Special Offences Court how Lagos State University apprehended its student, Afeez Ogunbowale, accused of raping two women in niqab.
A niqab is an islamic garment which covers the body leaving the eyes uncovered.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Edu is a security officer of LASU.
He testified at the trial of Ogunbowale who has been charged with armed robbery and rape.
Led in evidence by state counsel, O. A. Bajulaiye-Bishi, Edu told the court that he had been an employee of LASU for 22 years.
He said he got to know the defendant while investigating the alleged rape of the women who are also LASU students.
He said: “The Dean of Student Affairs called me on September 13, 2018, saying that two students were in his office to report a case of robbery.
“I met the two students and interacted with them and they explained how they were robbed and raped on April 18, 2018.
“They showed us a picture of the defendant who happened to be our student, and it was our responsibility to track the person.
“Our intelligence team tracked him and picked him up and the two victims were called and they identified him.
“They said he was one of the people who perpetrated the act.”
Edu said after Ogunbowale was identified by the complainants, he was detained at Festac Police Station.
Under cross-examination by defence counsel, Bisi Salau, the security officer said though the alleged rape occurred on April 18, 2018, the case was brought to his attention on September 13, 2018.
Edu said he worked at the Investigation Unit of the Security Department of the school and that the defendant was apprehended by the Intelligence Unit of the Security Department.
He said: “The victims said that after the incident, they tried to figure out the familiar face of one of the perpetrators.
“They logged into Facebook and identified the defendant through the Facebook account of their head of class.”
NAN reports that during proceedings on November 4, 2019, the complainants, who dressed in niqab, narrated how they were allegedly robbed by five men, but raped by Ogunbowale and one other person at large.
The women had told to the court that they lost their virginity to the attack.
According to the prosecution, the defendant committed the offences alongside some others at large on April 18, 2018 in Okokomaiko area of Lagos.
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