More revelations emerged at the weekend on the case of the 32-year-old widow, who accused a policeman, Inspector Peter Ibah, of raping her for not wearing a facemask.
The driver of a commercial Toyota Sienna conveying the widow said the police team that arrested the widow from his vehicle held her and forced other passengers to abandon her despite many pleas.
The 32-year-old widow alleged that Ibah later took her to a guest house where he raped her at gunpoint.
The driver, who simply identified himself as Lucky, said the victim was held against her wish by the policeman, who insisted on arresting her over a facemask despite offering the widow an extra nose mask in his vehicle.
He alleged that the policemen threatened to shoot the tires of the vehicle if he continued to plead for the woman’s freedom.
He said: “That day around 6pm, I loaded from Bori, reaching Saakpenwaa junction, about three policemen stopped us and checked if we were all using our nose masks.
But that lady was not putting on any nose mask, so I immediately gave her one extra nose mask in my vehicle.
“The moment she wore it, the police insisted that since they had already arrested her, even if everyone in the vehicle gave the woman their extra nose masks, they would still arrest her. Everyone in the vehicle started begging the officers to let the woman continue the journey with us because it was getting dark, almost 7pm, but the police refused, rather they threatened to burst our four tires if we didn’t stop begging and leave immediately, so I carried the rest of the passengers and left.”
But the policeman, who was arrested and detained at the police command in Port Harcourt, denied raping the woman saying they had consensual sex and he later gave her N4000.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Nnamdi Omoni, had earlier said the command would continue investigations into the development.