YENAGOA (Sundiata Post) – The Vanguard for the Protection of Rights of Women (VPRW) on Sunday condemned the alleged sexual crimes of a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Perekeme Kpodo, against women in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
A magistrates’ court in Yenagoa, presided over by E. T Empire-Ugwa, 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 allegations of sexual offences committed by Kpodo against unsuspecting and vulnerable ladies in his hotel in Bayelsa State.
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 ritual 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 alleged 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.
She alleged further that several ladies and women who were victims of the libidinous fury of Kpodo were agonising 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 rapist to subject the women populace to avoidable trauma.
She also threatened to mobilise the women in Bayelsa State to protest against rape.
Ebiakpo said that a medical test would be conducted on the victim for medical experts to examine her.