6 October 2011; Abuja & Lagos: Today, Right to Know (R2K) Nigeria and Project Alert on Violence Against Women, two Civil Society Organisations, have jointly applied for the report of the investigation undertaken by the Vice-Chancellor of Abia State University, ABSU, into allegations concerning the gang-rape of a female student of the university by persons suspected to be students of the same University.

The joint application was made pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) 2011, which establishes the right of access to information held by public institutions in Nigeria. Section 4 of the FOIA provides that the University Authorities must respond to the application within 7 days of receipt of the application.

Ene Enonche, R2K National Coordinator said, “Access to Information is fundamental to the accountability process in order to ensure that impunity does not go unpunished. Additionally, the Vice Chancellor’s investigation has been concluded, therefore he has an obligation under the FoI Act to make the findings of his investigation available at our request. ”

The application was made following an announcement issued by the Abia State University Governing Council on page 56 of the Nation Newspaper of Wednesday, 28 September 2011, indicating that the Council adopted the report of the investigation undertaken by the Vice-Chancellor which concluded that the alleged rape of an ABSU female student did not take place on the premises of the University, and challenged anyone with proof otherwise to take it to the appropriate authorities.

According to Mrs Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, Executive Director of Project Alert, we are interested in justice for Ms X , as we will now refer to the rape video victim. We are outraged by the impunity displayed by those young men, who did not only commit a crime, but went further to flaunt the crime, by recording and circulating evidence of their crime. We consider it a challenge to Nigeria as a country, and Nigerians as a people fish out the hoodlums and bring them to justice. Thus we will do anything and everything, to ensure justice for this young girl, and by extent justice for all.

In September 2011, a video of the brutal gang-rape of a female student of Abia State University was widely circulated on the internet. Reportedly, several of the boys involved in the rape were named and their courses of study were disclosed in the course of the video. The video was said to have originated from Abia State University.

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