Rape: Women Group Mobilizes Against Bayelsa APC Chieftain

Posted by African Examiner Latest Headlines, News Across Nigeria, News From The State Monday, July 30th, 2018

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Vanguard for the Protection of Rights of Women (VPRW) on Sunday condemned the sexual crimes of a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, APC and alleged serial rapist, Chief Perekeme Kpodo, against women in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

A Magistrates’ court in Yenagoa, presided over by E. T. Empire-Ugwa, remanded Kpodo, had on Friday Remanded Kpodo in prison custody on two counts of unlawful detention and rape of of his staff in his hotel.

But reacting to the development, Secretary General of VPRW, Ms. Jane Ebiakpo, told journalists that the VPRW was piqued by the rampant incidents of sexual offences committed by Kpodo against unsuspecting and vulnerable ladies in his hotel in Bayelsa.

According to her, the group was worried that Kpodo might have infected many ladies with sexually transmitted diseases in addition to the high possibility of a ritualist dimension to the dastardly act.

Ebiakpo said information at the disposal of the group indicated that Kpodo, a former Special Adviser to former Governor Timipre Sylva on Security, has formed the habit of raping his victims and using blackmail as a tool to compel them to drop the cases made against him in various police stations.

She said that the recent case in which he was accused of raping one of his employees, a young graduate of the Niger Delta University, for which he was remanded in prison custody was just one incident out of many cases against Kpodo.

Ebiakpo said that Kpodo raped the girl and made a trumped up allegation against her by claiming that she defrauded his company to the tune of N500,000.

She added that Kpodo tried to intimidate his victim, to drop the case she made against him at the Ekeki Police Station with a condition to drop his counter allegation against her in another police station within the city.

Ebiakpo stressed that Kpodo who she described as a serial rapist and sexual predator who rapes on impulse, has constituted a threat to the women folk in Bayelsa State.

She stated further that several ladies and women who were victims of the libidinous fury of Kpodo were agonizing with bruised psyche because of the stigma attached to rape in the society.

Ebiakpo said that the group would pursue the case against Kpodo to a logical conclusion, stressing that Bayelsa of 2018 would not allow any rapists to subject the women populace to avoidable trauma.

She also threatened to mobilize the women in Bayelsa to protest against rape.

Ebiakpo said that a medical test will be conducted on the victim for medical experts to examine.

She dismissed insinuations in some quarters that the Ordeal of Kpodo has political undertone, insisting that no politician sent him to have forcible carnal knowledge of his latest victim.