Panic in Akwa Ibom corper’s lodge as gunmen rob, r*pe female NYSC members

There has been panic among female corpers since Tuesday, July 5, 2022, as gunmen stormed their lodge, located along Udo Ekong Ekwere Street, off Information Drive, in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

In the course of the attack, some of the female corpers were raped, while other lose their valuable belongings to the assailants.

It was gathered that the yet-to-be identified gunmen stormed the lodge on a tricycle, in which they used in carting away valuable items, including laptops, cell phones and cash.

Narrating how the incident happened, Emeka Emmanuel, who’s a corps member, said: “They arrived on a tricycle, popularly called Keke, and immediately started operation.

“They beamed high intensity torchlight everywhere and pounded every door with heavy iron, and threatened to shoot us if we failed to cooperate.”

Another corps member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the assailants took advantage of their common way of sleeping naked at night.

“You know, at that period of the night, most of us females used to sleep naked. So, the suddenness of the attack caught us unprepared. 

“They beamed the torch through the windows and threatened to shoot if the door was not quickly opened,” the female corps member tearfully revealed.

Confirming the incident, the Youth Leader of the area, Godwin Okpo blamed the collapsed internal security for the robbery and rape of corps members. 

His words: “I used to go round from house-to-house to collect monetary contributions for the night vigilante group, to secure the area at night, but, suddenly, they started accusing me of embezzling their money. So, there was nothing I could do again.

“When I heard the incident late in the night, around 1a.m. this morning (yesterday), I moved to the place but, since I was alone, there was nothing I could do.”

Okpo added that he had since been warning the residents to always been switching off their regenerators once it’s midnight.