Adesope after and before acid attack

Acid attack: Bringing justice down on Lateefat Adesope’s assailant

STEPHEN UBIMAGO

When love turns sour, people react in different ways. Not infrequently, many resort to cathartic sobbing, while others take a descent into depression, which could manifest in a wide spectrum of extreme behaviours, from over-eating to instant reclusiveness or even contemplating suicide.

Still, others turn to violence particularly targeted at their estranged lovers. It is thus not uncommon to read screaming headlines with such captions as, “Man stabs banker wife to death;” or even “Jilted woman poisons fiance.”

Recently the story of how Oscar Pistorius, a South African Olympic gold medallist, allegedly shot his girlfriend to death made global headlines that in its March 11 edition, Time magazine would publish a cover story titled, “Pistorius and South Africa's Culture of Violence.”

His, however, is nearly typical rather than exceptional to the effect that best of lovers could turn the worst of enemies.

The tragic downside to it, nonetheless, is that in most of the love-turned-sour violence, women are ninety per cent of the times victims of the most extremes of attacks.

It has thus been said that the line between love and hate is tenuous.

Echoing the point in one of his numerous hit songs, Legendary Bob Marley sang quite sonorously but instructively that “your best friend could be your worst enemy.”

For whatever could have made a couple who seemingly were once in love to instantly drift emotionally far apart as to warrant one bathing the other with acid to the face could not but prove Marley very right.

Such is the painful story of Lateefat Adesope, 23.

A resident of 30, Chief Rasaki Aboro Street, Iyana Ipaja, and currently a student at the Blind Centre in Oshodi, Adesope previously trained as a cloth seller at Oshodi Market following her completion of Ordinary National Diploma (OND) at Osun State Polytechnic, Ire in 2009.

She had put her pursuit of Higher National Diploma (HND) on hold for want of means, she indicated.

Being led in evidence by prosecuting state counsel, Mr. O. Oke, at a Lagos High Court in Ikeja, presided by Justice Adeniyi Onigbanjo, Adesope testified that her tragedy resulted from a decision she made to discontinue her year-old love affair with estranged boyfriend, Musiliu Olokode, and her balls to communicate same to him.

She is a blind woman today, her face mangled in disfigurement resulting from an acid attack on her allegedly by her former boyfriend.

According to the young woman, “I told him I was no longer interested in the relationship. I started avoiding him; he didn’t understand. I told him I had no feelings for him again. I told him point-blank in December, 2011 that I was no more interested in the relationship. Then he poured acid on me.”

Adesope testified that her relationship with the defendant started in 2010 ending, describing the circumstances that brought her and Olokode into a love tango.

She said that she and Olokode lived in the same area at Aboru, Iyana Ipaja, Lagos. While operating a DSTV viewing centre close to her mother’s shop, a mama-put in local parlance, the defendant became her mother’s regular patron as he frequently ate out there.

“He often saw me at my mother’s shop in the evenings and took interest in me, indicating same with his often flirtatious call of ‘my wife’ each time he saw me,” she said.

Interestingly Olokode hardly came across as capable of extreme violent conduct, let alone capable of inflicting grievous bodily harm on a woman he loved.

Upon cross-examination by Mrs. A. Adeyemi, counsel to the defendant, Lateefat admitted that Olokode splashed her affection while their affair lasted.

“Were both of you in love?” defence counsel asked her.

“Yes,” she replied.

“He converted to Islam because he was in love with you, right?”

“Yes. He was born a Muslim though, but later converted to Christianity. He returned to Islam because of me.”

“Did he take care of you?”

“Partially; yes.”

“Did he exhibit any violent behaviour before?”

“He didn’t.”

For a man who displayed hints of chivalry towards his beau, the irony that the beast still lurked within that could be hatched at the point of provocation seems totally farfetched.

Thus in cross-examining Lateefat, defence counsel did her best to play that card by trying to impugn the credibility of the testimony given in evidence by Lateefat to the effect that Olokode couldn’t possibly be her assailant.

The challenge is that Lateefat herself did not exactly pick the full physical profile or, put simply, see who her assailant was, for he chose quite an auspicious hour of the day to carry out the dastardly act – early morning hours when as yet the day was dark and could provide a shield.

She however, testified that she suspected Olokode on the strength that she recognised his voice.

She said, “On December 30, 2011, around 6. 00 a.m., I heard him (Olokode) call my name. As I turned to answer his call, he poured the acid on me.”

Prying further, prosecuting counsel asked, “You said you heard him call you name?”

“Yes he called my name ‘Lateefa.’ As I turned back to look he immediately poured the acid on my face,” she said.

“I heard the cup with which he did the act fall to the ground. And he immediately ran away.”

“Is it possible for one to mistake one person’s voice for another person’s?” defence counsel asked Lateefat.

“Yes,” she said, “but I am not mistaken about the voice I heard. It was Musiliu’s.”

“When did this incident take place?”

“It took place on December 30, 2011, at about 6 a.m.”

“When he called your name was it loud or low?”

“In between loud and low.”

“He did not say anything other than calling your name?”

“Yes.”

“You did not see him exactly?”

“Yes.”

The point that Adesope’s assailant was smart, intending to deal the act and disappear into thin air anonymous, was echoed in the testimony given by prosecution witness Amusa Ayinla while being led in evidence by the state prosecutor.

Ayinla lives in the neighbourhood where the incident took place. He said the defendant is well known to him, since he operated a TV viewing centre in the area then.

“The viewing centre is beside Lateefa’s house,” he told the court, adding that the girl is his late friend’s daughter.

“Cast your mind to December 30, 2011. What happened on that date?” prosecution counsel asked.

“The day was a Friday. On the morning of that day, I heard Lateefa shouting. I demanded to know what was happening to her,” Ayinla said.

“What time of the day was that?”

“Around 6 a.m.”

“Prior to the incident, could Lateefa see perfect?”

“Yes, she could see.”

“At the exact time you heard Lateefa’s cry did you see anyone other than her?”

“No.”

“Did you hear any voice other than Lateefa’s?”

“None.”

Other than Lateefa’s claim of positively identifying the voice of her assailant as that of Olokode’s, the grey area respecting an exact, positive identification of the assailant’s person, neither by the complainant nor any other witness, will doubtless task both the ingenuity of the prosecution and the deftness of Justice Onigbanjo in putting a final nail to whether or not Olokode is guilty as charged.

It indeed affords the defence a foothold on the “reasonable doubt” escape route, since if the prosecution fails to discharge the burden of proving its case beyond reasonable doubt that Olokode did in fact commit the offense of inflicting grievous bodily harm on Lateefa, judgment may go the way of the defendant.

Meanwhile Olokode has pleaded not guilty to the charge of “maliciously administering poison with intent to harm” contrary to section 337 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State.

According to the said s. 337, “Any person who unlawfully, and with intent to injure or annoy another, causes any poison or other noxious thing to be administered or taken by, any person, and thereby endangers his life, or does him some grievous harm, is guilty of a felony, and is liable to imprisonment for fourteen years.”

However, can it reasonably be said that it was no more than mere coincidence that the incident took place within twenty-four hours of Lateefa’s repudiation of their relationship?

Whatever the persuasion may be, defence counsel did her best to play the reasonable doubt game to the fullest.

In the course of cross-examining Lateefa, she furtively mooted other possibilities regarding where the attack could have come from.

“Before you met him, did you go out with another person called Debo?” defence counsel asked Lateefa.

“No,” she retorted.

“In the course of dating him, you recall some people met you and warned you to stop dating a married man.”

“Nothing like that.”

“What was your reason for deciding to stop dating the defendant?”

“I had no feelings for him anymore.”

“Just why, no reason?”

“Nothing.”

“Was he the only boyfriend you’ve had in the past?”

“No.”

“What are the names of the previous ones?”

“Can’t remember.”

“When you told him you were tired of the relationship, what was his reaction?”

“He called me and started begging me, and asking me what his offence was.”

The testimony of the police investigating office, Mrs. Sikirat Bashiru, however, tended to firm up reasonable suspicion that even if other crime theory may be entertained, Olokode remained the prime crime suspect in the instant case.

Being led in evidence by State Prosecutor Oke, Bashiru testified that she only became aware of the matter when some people came to make statements at the police station respecting the case on January 22, 2012.

She said, “On 22^nd of January, 2012, I was detailed to investigate the case by my superior. I proceeded to obtain the statements of the witnesses voluntarily.

“I visited the scene of the crime at Chief Rasak Aboru Street where I discovered traces of liquid substances splashed on the wall of the mosque.

“The suspect had apparently gone into hiding. We were able to arrest him but not before a dedicated and organised search party were trained after him.”

She affirmed that from her investigation the victim and the defendant were lovers. She stressed that her family members and the community around believe strongly that the defendant poured the acid on the hapless girl.

The defendant went missing as visits to his residence and DSTV viewing centre indicated he had taken flight as they were under lock and key.

The determined search for the defendant took the police search party to different locations in and outside of Lagos as well as having to meet different people some of whom had to sign undertaking before the production of the suspect could be made possible.

Therefore, arising from the testimony of the IPO is a legion of questions including why the suspect took to flight if his hands were clean?

How come there is common belief among members of the community among whom he lived as well as among members of the victim’s family that the defendant is responsible for the attack on Lateefa Adesope?

Could it be that Lateefa had intuited some grave character flaw in the defendant, which made her decide against continuing her relationship with her alleged assailant?

It is significant that the couple not only were devotees of the same religion, the defendant having converted to Islam perhaps to convince his beau of his willingness to do anything for her, but were also worshippers at the same mosque were the attack took place.

In any case the incidence of acid attack on women by men who feel jilted is by no means rare.

Pakistan, for example, tops the list of incidence of acid attacks on women. In fact, nearly 150 incidents of acid-attacks is said to take place every year in Pakistan.

A report entitled “Acid Terrorism against Women in Pakistan”, appeared on December 12, 2009, and presents some incidents of this horrific crime.

The story of the acid attack on one Fakhra Yunus in Pakistan is fairly fresh in mind. On March 24, 2012 she jumped out of her sixth-floor apartment in Italy, 13 years after her attack.

 
According to a neighbor, Yunus was last seen looking at her marred face in the mirror and weeping. A former prostitute, Yunus was 22 when acid was thrown on her — allegedly by her husband.

Yunus’ attack became high-profile after she attracted the notice of Pakistani writer and activist Tehmina Durrani, who wrote “My Feudal Lord,” a searing indictment of women’s role in Muslim society.

Durrani helped Yunus move to Italy, where she received dozens of plastic surgeries and intensive counseling.

Lateefat Adesope’s own story mustn’t end like Yunus’. Justice must be done in her matter.

 
Sadly, however, at its last hearing that took place last week, scarcely was any NGO catering to the needs of hapless women like her represented in court, at least to help press her case to its logical terminus.

The matter has been adjourned till December 12 for continued hearing.