Rape and murder of teenage girl in Ibadan sparks outrage in #JusticeForBarakat protest

Rape
The slain Barakat Bello placed in-between the scenes where the incident occurred

In less than 72 hours after Uwaila Omozuwa, a 22-year-old 100 Level student of University of Benin (UNIBEN), was raped inside a church in Benin City, the Edo State capital, after which she gave up the ghost, another incident happened in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

This time round, it was at Akinyele Local Government Area of the ancient city of Ibadan, where some yet to be identified robbers were said to have raped an 18-year-old lady, Barakat Bello, to death in her home compound, Monday evening.

According to findings, Barakat was a student of the Federal College of Animal and Production Technology Moore Plantation, Apata, in Ibadan, where she was undertaking the National Diploma (ND) programme in Science Laboratory Technology (Labtech).

On the fateful day, Tuesday, June 1, 2020, she was said to been at home alone, as her parents had been out and her sister too was away to the Arabic School.

It was in the evening, she had gone to the bathroom, bathing, when she heard a troubling noise close to their house, and subsequently, she left the bathroom built separately from the house to check what was the happening.

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It was while walking towards the house it was said she realised it was robbers that broke into the compound, and as they saw her approaching, before she could flee, the robbers had attacked and strangled her, then took turn to rape her after which she was stabbed to death.

It was her junior sister who later returned home from the Arabic School, that was said to have found the dead body of her sister, Barakat, on the floor soaked in her own blood, screamed for help.

Thereafter after the neighbours had gathered, Barakat’s body was said to have been taken to the police station within the locality, but, as said, her remains were later released for her family who buried her according to Islamic rites on Tuesday.

Barakat’s father, Kasimu Elepo, who only returned home to see the corpse of his daughter he had left at home hale and hearty, speaking with the press said, he, and Barakat’s sister, were not at home when the tragic incident happened.

He said, “I was not at home when the incident happened. The younger sister too was not at home, she had gone for Qur’anic lessons but when she returned home, she saw her dead sister’s body at the back of the house with deep cuts all over her body. She had been raped and killed.

“It was somebody who refused to tell me what had happened that called me on the telephone saying I should come home. And when I got home, I saw that my daughter had been raped and stabbed to death.”

Meanwhile, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), Zone D, in solidarity with their slain colleague, had demanded justice for the victim, while calling on government to stop the raping of innocent women.

The late Barakat as a student was also a member of the Muslim Students’ Society of Nigeria (MSSN).

The rape and gruesome murder of Barakat had also sparked protests on Twitter, as Nigerians and others called for the fishing of out the assailants in #JusticeforBarakat protest.

Below are the protesting tweets: