LASU Final Year Student Seeks Justice After Alleged Assault By Landlord And Mother

LASU Final Year Student Seeks Justice After Alleged Assault By Landlord And Mother

A final-year student of Lagos State University (LASU), Udouko Ememabasi, is calling for justice after allegedly being attacked on the orders of her landlord, Idowu Shodipo, and his mother…….CONTINUE READING 

In an interview with *Daily Trust*, Ememabasi recounted that the incident began on August 12, 2024, around 8 p.m., when she and her friend, Eseh Gift Uduoghene, returned home to find a waste bin placed in front of their room.

“We asked a neighbor if he knew who put the dustbin there, and he said it was our landlord. We went to speak with the landlord but found his mother at her shop instead. When we asked her why the bin was placed there, she said someone had come around, so they put it there. I explained that I wasn’t aware of this, but she immediately became angry, insulted me, and then slapped and beat me. She even struck the spot where I recently had surgery,” Ememabasi said.

Her friend had to pull her away from the scene.

“We went inside, locked the door and windows, but she kept banging on them, shouting insults. Soon, others who didn’t know what was happening joined in, hitting the door and windows. Around 10:30 p.m. to 11:00 p.m., her sons returned and started trying to forcefully break into our apartment by attempting to melt the iron door,” she added.

When she contacted the police, they informed her that they were too far away to assist.

“They couldn’t come to our rescue. We were terrified that they might harm us, and there was no one to help. I called my father, but he lives in Ogun State and couldn’t make it that night,” Ememabasi explained.

The next day, on August 13, around 5 p.m., she and her friend prepared to go to the police station to report the incident, only to discover that their apartment door had been padlocked from the outside.

“What if we had died overnight? What if someone had entered through the window to harm us? Or if someone had tried to set the house on fire? We wouldn’t have been able to escape because we were locked inside. They even turned off the light and water. My father came to plead with them, asking them to consider his position as an elder. They deceived him into thinking they had agreed to resolve things. He told me to apologize to them, even though I had done nothing wrong. But when I did, the landlord took my apartment key, and then one of his boys hit my friend and me with something resembling an electric barbed wire. I became dizzy, and my head was pounding. This happened right in front of my father. Despite his pleas, they continued the assault. The landlord’s mother even encouraged them to beat us further. My friend tried to run outside, but there were already many people gathered, as if it was all planned. They brutally beat my friend until she was bleeding from her nose. We were severely attacked.”

When reached for comment, the acting Dean of Students’ Affairs, Dr. Surajudeen Fatai, said he did his best to protect the students.

“I did what I was supposed to do as Dean of Student Affairs. When I was called late at night, I went there. They could have killed me if I had fully supported the students because I encountered over 50 people in the compound. I had to prostrate on the floor, begging and pleading on their behalf,” he stated.

The incident was reported at Adolf Police Station in Iba. Ememabasi is now seeking justice.

“I am calling on the relevant authorities to step in because my life is being threatened. I got the police to arrest those involved, and now the landlord and his mother have threatened to deal with me,” she said.

However, when contacted, Idowu Shodipo denied the allegations, claiming that Ememabasi had slapped his mother first.

“She slapped my mother. The matter is in court, and we’ve been ordered not to comment until the second hearing. Even when the school management came around and we explained the situation, they backed out. I didn’t touch her. She slapped an elderly 70-year-old woman. Her claim that her life is being threatened is false. I was locked up in the station for five days,” he said.

Ememabasi, however, strongly denied ever slapping the landlord’s mother, asserting that this was a false accusation used to justify the assault on her and her friend.