The gang rape of a middle-aged woman in August 2011 has been discovered to have taken place in Etche, Rivers State, not Abia State University, Uturu (ABSU) as was widely reported by the social media.

The dastardly act shocked the world as its video was released on the internet and the perpetrators were branded students of ABSU.

Crack detectives from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Rivers State Police Command, through painstaking investigations, arrested the culprits, and three of the rapists are currently facing trial in Magistrate Court 9 in the state capital, Port Harcourt.

According to a report on the police bulletin, The Dawn, the detectives on September 7, 2012, while working on intelligence report, traced the husband of the rape victim to Obite town in Etche LGA who gave the police the real gist.

The man revealed that the alleged rapists were from the same community as himself.

Through the man’s report, the police nabbed Uchenna Ukulor, Chizoba Nwosu and Nwazuo Nmezi. One of them is said to be at large.

The police then invited the victim and her husband and the video clip was played in their presence where it was proved that the suspects committed the act.

Reacting to this revelation, Mr. Ugochukwu Emezue, Chief Press Secretary to the Abia Governor, said it was a thing of joy that both government and ABSU authorities who vehemently denied that the ugly incident ever took place in the state, have been vindicated.

The CPS commended the police for getting to the root of the matter by unravelling the perpetrators of the heinous crime.

Emezue, while briefing newsmen on the issue at Government House, Umuahia, yesterday said: “Abia State Government and the ABSU have been vindicated by the findings of the police which show that the incident never happened at ABSU but a village in Rivers State.”

“The police has confirmed that the case is before Magistrate Court 9 Port Harcourt, Rivers State, as the alleged victims are facing trial.”

Emezue labelled as detractors, those who had insisted that the ugly incident took place at ABSU, adding that they are those who do not want to see anything good in government or the state. “They should now bury their heads in shame,” the CPS said.

“Abia people are decent and cannot involve themselves in such barbaric act,” Emezue said, urging Abians to ignore the antics of those who do not mean well for the state.

News Express recalls that the gang rape, regarded as the biggest scandal of the century, had put ABSU and the state government on the spot.

However, authorities of ABSU disowned the video clip of a gang of five young men who roundly subjected a young woman to marathon rape, saying that both the men and victim were not their students.

The university described the publications in some national dailies which said that the five young men were students of the institution as “malicious, unfounded and absolutely incorrect.”

Dean, Student Affairs of the university, Dr. Udo Nwokocha and the then President of the university’s Students Union Government, Comrade Christian Afulike, said that the university has conducted thorough investigations and discovered that “the purported incident never took place anywhere in Abia state University nor were the rapists or victim students of Abia state university, as alleged in the said mischievous publications.”

“We want to vouch for the enviable reputation of our students and therefore want to disassociate them from this immoral, animalistic and dehumanising act. The Abia State University community is grossly embarrassed by the publication and its concomitant negative effect on the image of the university,” they had insisted.

•Photo: Video footage of the rape that shocked the world.

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