A few days ago, some ladies took to Twitter alleging that two Afe Babalola University (ABUAD) students assaulted a fellow student. Their story says two male students conspired to rape a female student. No proof was, in any case, given to support the story.

And in no time, one of the female students who reported the incident, Comfort Adaji (400Level Law) wrote an apology saying she was misinformed and hopes that God and the founder of the University, Afe Babalola (SAN) – forgives her mis-utterances.

She also urged all her “followers and friends to disregard all the misinformed tweets.”

Read her apology below:

This is coming two days after another one from the group of three students who reported the story, Bamigboye Elizabeth Omowonuola (400Level Law) apologised.

Elizabeth said she retracts the report as they were “false, mischievous and a figment of my imagination.”

In the first apology, Elizabeth says she had no concrete information before she reported the incident and only wanted to help spread the information. However, her apology did not indicate where exactly the information came from and why she did not authenticate it before spreading it.

Besides, there seems to be similarities in the two apologies tendered. But, before pointing this out, why did Comfort repeat paragraphs in her statement or is there a possibility that she forgot, while ‘copying’ it from the where it was sent, that it had been repeated? Let’s remember that it was typed on the Note app on an iPhone. Also, she decided that mentioning ‘Afe Babalola’ more times than required is enough to earn his forgiveness.

Then, both apologies followed the same pattern, asking followers and friends, in the third paragraph, to disregard the supposed misleading story and that they have learnt their lessons. The most interesting part in Comfort’s apology is: “All I ask is for a second chance to redeem myself…and to make something out of my life so that my efforts and those of my parents would not end in waste.” Interesting, isn’t it?

But while investigations are ongoing into the incident and the apologies, will it be wrong to ask if the statements were typed for them?

The school management has since replied saying the incident has been investigated and there nothing of such, starting with a fascinating headline: “Campaign of calumny: The false rape story”.

It states that “the story was false and utterly baseless. For the avoidance of doubt, nobody was raped in Afe Babalola University.”

The statement adds that “each of the students has confessed and admitted her role in the made-up story. Having regard to the damage the extensive publication of the false news has done to the ever-growing international image of the University, the originators and disseminators of the false story who have also made a confessional statement will appear before the Students Disciplinary Committee of the University.”

Without a doubt, rape is indeed a serious issue and if these students made up the stories and have confessed to their roles in the drama, the Disciplinary Committee should make them face stringent punishments, considering it might actually the tarnish the University’s image.

Or is there something the school, especially Afe Babalola, its Pro-Chancellor is not saying?

The school alumni have also reacted:

Public Announcement. pic.twitter.com/UdZX7Sm5XT

— ABUAD ALUMNI (@Abuad_Alumni) December 6, 2018