Police arrest serial rapist in Oyo

A young man, Abiodun Akinola, who had formed the habit of raping helpless female labourers at Akobo area of Ibadan has been nabbed by the police in Oyo State. Abiodun was reported to be a regular visitor to Kolapo Ishola Estate, where labourers usually gathered to get hired for jobs on construction sites, approaching female labourers, who would be unaware of his ulterior motive, that he had work for them to do.
According to the Commissioner of Police in Oyo State, Mr Tambari Yabo Mohammed, while briefing journalists on the incident and the arrest of the suspect, Abiodun had on Monday, May 7, accosted a female labourer called Madam Taiwo and proposed a labourer’s job to her. Unsuspectingly, Madam Taiwo followed the suspect to a building under construction at Kolapo Ishola Estate where he said the job was.
On getting to the building, and on the pretence of showing her what she was expected to do, Abiodun had allegedly drawn a UTC stainless knife and threatened to kill the woman if she would not yield to his sexual demand. Not one to give in easily, the woman reportedly raised an alarm, shouting for help. A hawker who was passing by heard her cry and called the attention of others around.
They promptly came to the woman’s rescue, while the suspect was apprehended and the UTC knife recovered. Abiodun’s alleged past activities were said to have come into the open when he arrived Akobo police station with the police. A woman, who gave her name as Madam Fausat, identified the arrested suspect, saying that she had also once been raped by the same young man in a similar circumstance. In an interview with the suspect, he revealed that he was also a labourer and was pushed into the crime of forcing women into having sex with him by poverty. According to Abiodun, “I had not raped the woman before I was caught and it was my first attempt.
I had never done such a thing before.” He denied threatening his victim with a knife though he admitted ownership, saying that it was found where he kept it. Abiodun said he had lost his mother while he was still young while his father lived at Alakia area. “I finished secondary school in 2010 and learnt shoe making. It was when there was no business that I decided to hustle by becoming a labourer,” he added. The Commissioner of Police however said that the suspect would be charged to court at the completion of investigations.