I know I've posted an item from Change.org before, and I'm certainly not trying to spam the boards with them, but this one...well, this one is really important.
Title: Bring The ABSU 5 Who Gang-Raped Woman in Nigeria to Justice
"WHY THIS IS IMPORTANT
On or around August 16th, 2011 five male students of Abia state University Nigeria imprisoned and raped mercilessly for several hours a fellow female student. What had she done to deserve this? Apparently she insulted one of them and this was her punishment. As though the rape wasn't enough, they also filmed it and callously passed the footage around to their friends and from there on to the entire campus. This footage has been making waves online and amongst Nigerian bloggers with several people calling out to the government to do something.
The government must find these boys and hold them accountable.
They must know that Nigerians and people all around the world will not sit by idly while such atrocities continue to take place."
Emailed story:
There's a desperate search on for a female university student in Nigeria. Some want to silence her. Others want to protect her.
On August 16, the unidentified woman was gang-raped by five male students at Abia State University -- for hours, as she begged first for mercy, and then for her rapists to kill her because of the pain. And it's all on video.
Change.org member Adetomi Aladekomo has joined bloggers and activists working to bring the victim to safety and her rapists to justice by starting a petition to Abia State University (ABSU) and state officials. Sign Adetomi's petition to demand a full investigation into the videotaped rape in order to prosecute and convict the "ABSU 5" gang-rapists.
Over the past two weeks, bloggers and individuals around the world have put up reward money and used video imaging software to try to identify the victim and the rapists -- when the police should have been doing this all along. Unbelievably, state authorities have so far stymied efforts, preferring to deny the rape ever even happened under their watch. Local women's groups fear that they're even out to silence the victim, perpetuating a culture of fear and shame around rape in Nigeria, where such crimes are dramatically under-reported and under-prosecuted.
Adetomi, who grew up in Nigeria until she was seventeen, knows that international outcry around the gang rape at ABSU will be decisive in protecting the victim and bringing justice. With the whole world watching, the victim may have the courage to come forward and press charges -- and other women who’ve been raped may come forward, too, when they previously would not have.
In fact, it was because of Change.org members and international outcry earlier this year that a woman who had created a Change.org petition from inside a Cape Town safe house was able to come out and seek justice for her partner, who had been gang-raped and killed to 'cure' her of being a lesbian.
Global pressure is as important today as it was then. Demand the "ABSU 5" gang-rapists who videotaped their own crime pay for it with prison time. Sign Adetomi's petition now, and then send it to everyone you know.
Thanks for being a change-maker,
Shelby and the Change.org team
http://www.change.org/petitions/brin...ria-to-justice



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