Luxury bus attack: Parents of allegedly raped girls to sue transporter

Posted by admin Headlines Thursday, April 5th, 2012

PARENTS of the students, who were attacked by gunmen and reportedly robbed and raped at the weekend, have concluded arrangements to sue the transport company, Ekenedili Chukwu for “negligence of duty.”

The parents also denied that their children were raped but admitted that the armed men sexually harassed them by asking them to strip their clothes.

The parents met on Wednesday afternoon at St Agnes Catholic Church, Maryland, in Lagos State, where it was unanimously agreed that the transport company should be taken to court.

The decision was taken after four of the parents who were at the scene of the incident narrated their experience and the roles played by the driver of the vehicle, who was said to be more concerned about business than the safety of the children.

The chairman of the Lagos branch of the Parent–Teacher Association of Holy Rosary College Enugu, Cyril Akunyili, while speaking with newsmen on Wednesday stated that the decision to take the transport company to court was taken after due deliberation.

The PTA chairman accused the transport company of not taking the safety of the lives of the school children into consideration but was only interested in business.

The school principal, Reverend Sister Mercy Ani also denied media reports that the students were raped, insisting that none of the students had actually reported being raped.

Reverend Sister Ani noted that the 25 parents who were present at the meeting all denied that their daughters were raped.
Parent of one of the school children who pleaded anonymity, while speaking with newsmen on the incident, also blamed the driver of the bus for the whole incident.

The woman, who claimed to have escaped being raped by simply telling the gunmen that she was pregnant, stated that the driver of the bus was aware that there were armed robbers ahead of them.

“The driver of the bus was told that there were armed robbers operating ahead of us but he insisted that he would go, claiming to have the first turn for the following day,” the woman lamented.

She added that, unfortunately, when he got to the robbers, he [the driver] and the conductor jumped out of the vehicle, leaving the key in the ignition.”

-Tribunewp_posts