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Summary
Three men raped a 16-year-old student at Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) in February while she was working to earn money for her medical treatment for a severe lung condition.
Three men raped a 16-year-old student at Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) in February. The survivor, who has battled a severe lung condition for years, had taken a job washing clothes to help cover her hospital expenses.
Diagnosed with asthma at age 13, the student’s condition worsened, leading to a diagnosis of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) in January 2025 after she was found unconscious. Facing mounting medical bills and insufficient allowance, she began seeking small jobs, including writing notes for classmates. Desperate to raise funds, she accepted the clothing washing job despite feeling unwell.
“I went to wash this woman’s clothes… someone used a handkerchief to cover my nose from behind,” she recounted. She recalled gasping for air before being carried by two men to a secluded location where they raped her. Her cries for help went unanswered.
The trauma of the assault left her deeply shaken. “I didn’t finish washing the clothes and left,” she said. “I kept quiet, kept quiet, kept quiet. I didn’t even think of going to the hospital to, you know, flush things out. I was just very, very scared. What if they come back again? What if, what if? ‘Cause I was threatened. What if they come back?”
She said she battled suicidal thoughts for three days. “I just needed someone to tell because I needed someone to talk to. I was already having suicidal thoughts here and there,” she confided to a friend.
She described her attackers as “hefty” but said their faces were covered, making identification difficult.
This month, her lung condition deteriorated significantly. On February 18th, she returned to the hospital, where doctors reportedly gave her a prognosis of three years to live.
Now, the student faces the dual trauma of the sexual assault and her declining health while her attackers remain at large. She is considering informing her mother about the rape.
“The only thing I want now is that… I just, ever since then, I’ve not really been myself. In fact, to sleep at night, I’ll be having different kinds of nightmares. I want to be okay. I want to be myself back. Like I want to be mentally okay. That’s just everything I want.”
