Metro
Sorry Tale of Nigerian Lady Attacked, Almost Raped by Unknown Man in Tanzanian Hotel
The Zanzibar Commission for Tourism, Tanzania, has commenced investigation into allegations of robbery and attempted rape made by a Nigerian tourist, Zainab Oladehinde.
This was after Nigerians expressed outrage at the incident, which trended on Twitter and affected the reviews of the Warere Beach Hotel, Nungwi, Zanzibar, where the event occured.
Oladehinde had, in a series of tweets on Saturday, said she boarded a plane from Lagos to Tanzania and proceeded to lodge in the hotel to celebrate her 23rd birthday.
The victim said she was to be lodged in the hotel for six days, but a “traumatic experience” in the facility made her undergo therapy for a year.
She stated, “Around 12am, a few friends and family called to wish me a happy birthday and then I went back to my room to sleep. A few hours into my sleep, I started to feel a strange hand touching my breasts.
“Now, this was me sleeping naked on my bed in my hotel room with my doors locked. So, this was definitely a dream. I told myself and went back to sleep. Some few minutes afterwards, I started to feel my hands stroking someone’s pen*s.
“At this moment, I opened my eyes to confirm if it was actually a dream or I was in real danger. Lo and behold, it wasn’t a dream. There was a naked man lying on my bed and touching me at 2am in my hotel room!
“He started calling me baby and then I became scared because the room was dark as I had switched off the lights before I went to bed. Now, I was extremely scared.”
In that moment, Oladehinde said she asked for the man’s identity, adding that he ignored and gagged her mouth to prevent her from calling for help.
She said dreadful thoughts of being raped and killed, among others, occupied her mind, as she never knew how the man entered her room, which was locked.
According to her, the yet-to-be-identified man was about to rape her when she shouted that she had HIV, which made him to stop.
“So, I continued begging and telling him I’d allow him have sex with me but he’d need to get a condom so as not to get HIV. I kept on saying HIV whilst crying profusely at this point. As I struggled to not let him strangle me, he left the room and told me he’d be back with a condom.
“Immediately he left, I switched on the light, tried to call the hotel reception but there was no intercom or phone lines to reach the hotel reception. I couldn’t stay back in the room and wait for the rapist to come back.
“I decided it was very unsafe for me to remain in the room. If I’d die, I’d rather die trying to escape rather than let the man come back to attack me a second time. I quickly put some clothes on and left my room barefooted so as not to make noise when I get out.
“On getting outside the room, I wanted to make my way to the reception, but then I saw two security men standing outside by the pool side having a conversation. I wanted to meet them to tell them I had just been attacked by a stranger in my room.
“But I thought to myself, what if this was the person who actually attacked me? Then I became extremely scared because I’d have to find a way to get to the reception without those men seeing me,” she added.
Oladehinde said she crawled to avoid being noticed and when she got to the rooms at the reception, she knocked on the doors but no one answered.
She said, “I was crying profusely at this point because I thought I wouldn’t survive this night.
“Almost immediately, I remembered the Russian couple I had spent some time with the day before and I could go to their room to seek refuge. I started crawling on my chest till I got to their room.
“Fortunately for me, the room was opened and I ran inside. They woke up almost immediately and I told the guy, Alex, how I was strangled and almost got raped in my room.
“He advised that I stay in his room till we sort out the issue by daybreak. I called my friend to tell him I was in another room where I felt safe and he told me he had called the hotel owner. This was around 4am in the morning.”
Around 6am, the victim said she left Alex’s room and called her taxi driver, one Suley, to convey her to the nearest police station.
While awaiting the driver’s arrival, Oladehinde noted that she realised her phone battery would soon go flat when she summoned the courage to go into her room to pick up her charger.
Upon entering the room, she, however, discovered that she had been robbed of $1,100, adding that it took two hours before the hotel manager, one Mussa, attended to her.
She said, “Mussa claimed to have received a phone call around 4am by the hotel’s owner to check for me in my room after my friend called them. He said he didn’t find me in the room, so he went back to bed.
“I told Mussa to call out all the security personnel that were on duty the night before so we’d get the hang of who the culprit was. They all came out. I couldn’t recognize any of them, but I could smell the man that was in my room that midnight.
“The taxi driver arrived and we all left for the police station. When we got to the police station, I was asked to write my statement, which I did. The policemen advised I go to the hospital to do a check-up if I was raped or not.
“They were all speaking Swahili and were asking me questions instead of interrogating the suspects. When I decided to take a picture of the police station and the statement I had written, the policemen started threatening me to delete the pictures.
Oladehinde said when the nurse at a hospital she visited confirmed that there was no penetration, the policemen said they had no reason to press charges on sexual assault, adding that the only issue was the stolen money.
“The policemen at the Nungwi police station in Zanzibar kept on bullying and harassing me. They told me to leave the police station that I wasn’t raped. I was so frustrated, sad and scared. How could the police do this to me? How could the hotel do this to me? The owner and manager said I lied about my experience,” she said.
In a short video clip posted alongside the tweets, Alex was heard confirming that Oladehinde came to seek solace in his room on April 16, 2021, when the incident happened.
A statement by the Executive Secretary, Zanzibar Commission for Tourism, Hafsa Mbamba, condemned the incident, saying an investigation had commenced.
The statement read in part, “The Zanzibar Commission for Tourism is shocked and disappointed to learn of this incident and take these allegations very seriously. An immediate investigation has commenced and we will report on its findings. We condemn any harm or threat to our visitors to the peaceful islands of Zanzibar.”
The Punch
The Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Bayo Ojulari, has acknowledged growing complexities in the effort to revamp Nigeria’s state-owned refineries.
Although the Port Harcourt refinery began processing crude oil again on November 26, it was later shut down in May for maintenance.
Meanwhile, rehabilitation work is still ongoing at the Warri and Kaduna refineries.
Speaking in an interview with Bloomberg on the sidelines of the 9th OPEC International Seminar in Vienna, Austria, Ojulari said NNPC is in the process of reassessing its refinery strategies, with plans to conclude the review by the end of the year.
“So refineries, we made quite a lot of investment over the last several years and brought in a lot of technologies. We’ve been challenged,” he said.
“Some of those technologies have not worked as we expected so far. But also, as you know, when you’re refining a very old refinery that has been abandoned for some time, what we’re finding is that it’s becoming a little bit more complicated.
“So we’re reviewing all our refinery strategies now. We hope before the end of the year, we’ll be able to conclude that review. That review may lead to us doing things slightly differently.”
When asked whether the review could result in selling the refineries, Ojulari said a sale remains a possibility.
“But what we’re saying is that sale is not out of the question. All the options are on the table, to be frank, but that decision will be based on the outcome of the reviews we’re doing now,” he said.
Ojulari also addressed the cost of oil production in Nigeria, stating that operating expenses range between $20 and $30 per barrel.
“For the cost of crude production, there’s a capital cost and there are the operating costs,” he said.
“The operating cost right now in Nigeria is hovering over $20 per barrel, which is quite high.
“Part of that is because of the investment we’ve had to make in terms of security of our pipelines, which as you know, today we have 100 percent availability of our pipelines. That came out of significant investment.
“So we believe with time, with stability, that cost will start going down, but for now it’s somewhere between $25 and $30 a barrel.”
Looking ahead, Ojulari said NNPC aims to increase Nigeria’s oil output to 1.9 million barrels per day (bpd) by the end of the year.
By Eric Elezuo
A group, Centre for Justice Mercy and Reconciliation (CJMR), has called on the governor of Ekiti State, Abiodun Oyebanji, and other well meaning Nigerians, to come to the aid of a female inmate at the Ibara Custodial Centre, Rashidat Abdul, who is reported to be in critical health condition, and needs urgent medical attention.
The deteriorating health of the said inmate, was reported by officers at the Custodial Centre to the Centre for Justice Mercy and Reconciliation (CJMR), a grassroots organization focusing on human rights and access to justice for those deprived of their rights on death row and in detention.
Speaking with The Boss, the Coordinator of the group, Hezekiah Deboboye Olujobi said, “Upon seeing the woman’s health condition during our visit to Ibara, we pleaded that she be transferred to a hospital where she could receive the necessary medical care. Despite concerns about the financial burden, we took this step of faith to save her life. She is now admitted to Ogun State Hospital, Abeokuta.”
Narrating the genesis of the inmate’s ordeal, Olujobi added that “Rashidat Abdul was sentenced to death by the Ado Ekiti State High Court. She appealed the judgment, but her appeal was unsuccessful. The court convicted the entire family based solely on the testimony of one individual relying on third-party information, without the presence of the alleged witness in court. It is also important to note that her son had just sat for his WAEC examination before their arrest.
“We submitted appeals to the Ekiti State Board of Mercy in September last year and again in March 2025, but these pleas have yet to receive the attention of the Ekiti State Governor. We have conducted a thorough review of the court records, including the brief of argument before the Court of Appeal, and we can see the innocence of this woman and her husband. While the appeal is still pending before the Supreme Court, we are appealing to the human and Christian conscience of the Attorney General of Ekiti State, Hon. Dayo Apata, to look into this case. God delights in true justice and mercy; God hates oppression, so must we.
“The critical state of this woman’s health calls for urgent attention from concerned individuals in Nigeria and abroad. The officer in the prison maintains transparency in this matter, and we are committed to doing the same.
“This morning, 9/7/2025, I received a message from the officer informing us that the funds we deposited have been exhausted. There is an urgent need to purchase injections costing ₦10,000 each daily, conduct X-rays and a series of tests from time to time, engage a caregiver and physiotherapist, provide feeding, and buy supplements to aid her recovery. Additionally, payment for the hospital bed space is required, along with a stipend for transportation for the security personnel on guard and other logistics.”
The group therefore, is appealing to the governor of Ekiti State, Oyebanji and other well meaning Nigerians to come to the woman’s aid so as to preserve her life.
“We kindly ask for your support to respond to this urgent call. Although Rashidat is a Muslim, our service to humanity transcends religion.
“We understand that some who have been deceived in the past may find it difficult to trust those genuinely committed to serving others, and those involved in fraudulent activities may be reluctant to support genuine efforts.
“However, this is the very mission our Lord Jesus Christ has called us to fulfill. We earnestly seek your support.
“Thank you for your kindness and generosity,” Olujobi pleaded on behalf of Rashidat and the group.
For donations and more information, please visit the website: [https://www.cjmr.com.ng](https://www.cjmr.com.ng)
Account Details:
Centre for Justice Mercy and Reconciliation
Zenith Bank
Account Number: 1012189729
Phone: 08030488093
During the price hike, marketers stated that the product was sold at N960 and N980 in the far north because of the distance.
However, as crude prices fell below $70 last week, the pump prices of PMS also declined. Crude prices had crashed because Israel and Iran stopped bombing each other, alleviating fears of a supply disruption in the Middle East.
As of Tuesday, many filling stations sold petrol below N900 per litre in Lagos and Ogun States.
PUNCH Online reports that the filling stations sold petrol at rates ranging from N875 to N890 a litre.
A marginal drop is expected in the price of the product at the pumps.
