Arrested Students Deny Involvement In Gang Rape Video

Two students of Nigeria’s Abia State University arrested by the police in connection with the video of an alleged gang rape,posted on the internet, have denied any involvement in the rape or the video-taping.

The Abia state police command announced weekend the arrest of the students and also said it has questioned them over the matter, which has caused widespread outrage.

The video, no longer available online, clearly showed the face of the assaulted woman, pleading with her assailants to stop.

“Two men were brought in yesterday (Friday) for questioning at the state’s criminal investigation department,” Bala Hassan, commissioner of police of Abia state, told AFP.

Police were trying to identify the scene of the crime and the identity of those involved.

“We have gone back to the university to see if we can make more arrests based on information posted on the Internet,” said Hassan.

“More than 15 detectives have gone to university hostels. They go around to check those names posted on the Internet and they are trying to identify the hostel seen on the Internet.”

He said police had not received a complaint.

Investigators’ initial response to the video has been criticised as lax.

“We are taking this seriously,” Hassan insisted. “We want to find concrete information. Full names, not nicknames … so that we can check on the registry of the university.”

In a statement cited by local media, Abia’s state government said it had run its own investigation and concluded that neither the alleged victim nor the perpetrators were linked to Abia’s state university.

“The conduct of the Abia state government is inexcusable,” said Chidi Odinkalu of the Open Society Justice Initiative help group, who added that most rapes in Nigeria go unreported.

“We’ve not provided a caring and thoughtful enough institutional framework to enable victims of rape to come forward,” Odinkalu added.

Nigeria’s National Assembly had on Thursday called for a proper police investigation.