Mark Davies, a businessman, is demanding justice after supposedly being dishonestly accused of attempted rape by a woman, Chiamaka Hamzat, in the Wagbare Estate area of the Igbogbo-Bayeku Local Council Development Area of Lagos State.
It was gathered that trouble ensued between Mark and Chiamaka when the executive of the estate bought a transformer to power the area and requested money from each landlord before they could be connected.
In a bid to power his house, Mark, whose building is located about 400 metres away from an electric pole, reportedly paid the estate management and purchased a long wire, which was connected to the pole. Chiamaka and her husband, Yusuf, were said to have approached Mark to connect to his wire after paying the fee demanded by the estate management.
Mark told journalists that the reason the couple approached him was to avoid purchasing a long wire to connect to the pole, which is at a far distance away from their house, adding that after he agreed, they went behind him to connect another building.
The Rivers State indigene said, “It was when the current started fluctuating that I traced the wire and confirmed that they had connected another building without informing me. I told Chiamaka to inform her husband to disconnect the other building because two of my television sets had developed faults as the power was fluctuating, but they refused; so, I personally disconnected the two buildings.
“Unsatisfied with my action, Chiamaka and her husband reported me to the Wagbare Estate CDA executive and they all visited me at home and during the meeting, I told them that I could not please them at my own expense. Our conclusion at the meeting was that they should buy their wire and connect directly to the pole.
“They were not happy with the conclusion and since then, Chiamaka had been abusing me whenever she saw me passing, but I always ignored her. But on February 28, 2020, after the school bus took my kids to school, I was returning home when she accosted me and poured a bucket of water on my body. I became annoyed and told her that I would get her arrested.
“She held on to my cloth, tore it and cut my necklace, but unknown to her, I was recording the assault. I never touched her and I have recordings of the incident. I left her and went home to avoid further trouble and went to the hospital to treat myself because I was sick.”
The story, however, took another dimension when the father of four said Chiamaka went to the Ikorodu Divisional Police Station to accuse him of attempted rape and tore her clothes to authenticate her claim. He added that despite presenting overwhelming evidence to refute her claim, the police were still bent on prosecuting him.
Mark said, “You won’t believe that this woman personally tore her clothes and went to the Ikorodu Divisional Police Station to misinform the police that I came to rape her and she refused and I started beating her and tore her clothes in the process.
“I went to the station and the Investigating Police Officer, Sergeant Adenike David, started saying I went to rape a married woman and tore her clothes in the process. I was shocked. So, I played the recording to her and her colleagues and they were surprised that Chiamaka came to lie to them.
“They said if not for the recording, I would have been charged for rape. So, Adenike called Chiamaka to come to the station and on getting there, she asked her why she lied and she said because I am a single man, people would easily believe her story. Adenike started begging me, but I refused and she gave me a caution paper despite her colleagues telling her that the woman was now the suspect.
“The case was later transferred to the OC, who tried to mediate between us and wanted me to leave the matter, but I refused. The case was moved to the Divisional Crime Officer, Uzoma Martins, who heard from both of us but refused to take a look at the recording, and at the end of the day, said the woman should be released, because she was a first-time offender, but I insisted that there was nothing like that in law. They even tried to change the incident to a matter of two persons fighting.”
In a bid to get justice, Mark said he petitioned the Assistant Inspector-General in-charge of Zone 2 and a signal was sent for the transfer of the case, but Adenike allegedly refused until she was threatened with a query.
“Chiamaka was brought to the Zone 2 Command headquarters on Tuesday, August 11, 2020. I want justice because my name is involved and I have children; I don’t want somebody to refer to them as children of a rapist tomorrow. I want justice because this kind of thing can affect other men as some other women can rise up anytime and accuse them of rape and the police will take sides with them because the law favours women than men,” he added.
When contacted, Chiamaka stated, “I poured water on him on that day because he had been embarrassing me, but I did not report to the police that he attempted to rape me.”
However, a telephone conversation between Mark and Adenike, which was made available to our correspondent, put a lie to Chiamaka’s claim. In the conversation, Mark asked, “How can she (Chiamaka) allege that I was almost raping her and beat her and tore her clothe?
Adenike responded, “That is her complaint; that is what she told me and when I heard what you recorded, didn’t I scold her in the presence of her husband that she was the one that caused everything?”
When contacted, the spokesperson for the Zone 2 Police Command, Hauwa Idris, described PUNCH’s journalists as impatient, saying, “Allow the police to do their work to find out whether the woman is telling lies. That is how one of your reporters went to write rubbish against me the other time.”
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