'He got in with her permission' – Zanzibar hotel jumps to the defense of man who tried to rape tourist
Tourist recounts near-rape experience in Zanzibar
Read full articleTanzania police accused of maltreatment
Warere hotel responds to accusations by Nigerian tourist
The management of the Warere Beach Zanzibar, Tanzania, has described the accounts of a Nigerian tourist who had a bad experience at their facility in 2021, as a one-sided story, claiming that the accused got permission from the tourist.
The hotel came under heavy criticism and received an unprecedented downward online review after the tourist, Zainab Oladehinde, shared her harrowing accounts from visiting the hotel in 2021, on a solo trip, to mark her 23rd birthday.
Zainab narrated her ordeal on how she was nearly raped by a stranger who unlawfully entered her room when she was asleep.
Making its first public reaction to the accounts of Zainab, the management of the Warere Beach Zanzibar, Tanzania, has said that while it was aware of the accounts of the tourist, the details are not as they have them.
The hotel also claimed that the accused – a man who is reported to have unlawfully entered the room of the tourist at midnight and attempted to rape her, claimed that he got access to the room of Zainab with her permission.
In a tweet that has since been deleted, the hotel said:
“He denied any wrongdoing on his part and insisted that it was Zainab who requested him to go to her room for a love affair. They’d been spotted together earlier. He got into her room with her permission and he did not break the door nor enter the room through other techniques.”
In a series of tweets, the hotel management offered its defence to the matter, expressing concerns that many people flooded online spaces to give it a downward rating when the majority of them had never visited the facility before.
“Following accusations of sexual assault through various social media platforms by a Ms Zainab Oladehinde, who stayed at our Warere Beach Hotel in April 2021 as a guest, we would like to add our detailed account of the alleged event in a clearer perspective as hereunder.
“Firstly we would like to mention from the outset that it is not our policy to respond publicly to any personal issues encountered by our guests. However, due to the fact that the said guest decided to go public, we feel, though reluctantly.
“That we are duty bound to respond and put the record of the alleged event in its totality. This is so, particularly since the said news was posted that our Warere Website was hacked and we were inundated by a massive release of negative messages.
“Within 3 hours we have received 4,000 negative reviews on Google from people who had never stayed at our Hotel but simply tended to believe a one sided story. It is true that we had Ms Zainab Oladehinde as our guest coming from Nigeria who arrived in APRIL, 2021,” the hotel said.
It further clarified that the man who entered Zainab’s room was not a staff of their hotel and that immediately they received the tourist’s complaint, they directed her to report it to the police.
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“It is also true that she reported to our Management that a male security personnel (who is not our employee but was posted at our Hotel by the Security Company) went to her room and attempted to have sexual intercourse with her.
“Immediately we directed and assisted her to report the matter at the nearby Police Station as this is a criminal matter and falls under police jurisdiction to investigate and take appropriate legal measures,” it added.
The statement from the Warere Beach Zanzibar, Tanzania, explained that even though the police took the statements of Zainab, it also received with shock, the conflicting accounts of the accused.
“The Police took her statement of complaint and accordingly the accused person (a staff member of the security company) was immediately arrested, detained and interrogated by the Police. However, to everybody's surprise the accused gave a different account of what happened,” it added.
Background:
‘Zainab’ and ‘Zanzibar’ have occupied spots on Ghana’s top trends on Twitter following a hallowing ‘attempted rape’ story one Zainab Oladehinde told on April 16, 2022.
The ordeal she described as a “horrible experience”, according to the Nigerian, occurred in April 2021. She had, however, not been able to narrate the encounter up until now because she had “been in therapy for a year to heal from the psychological trauma as this experience has been the most painful and traumatic experience” she’s ever faced in her entire life.
Zainab in her narration said she had left Nigerian for Tanzania for the commemoration of her 23rd birthday but her burning desire to have an exciting experience was doused after a mysterious man unlawfully entered her hotel room in an attempt to rape her. According to Zainab, while she was asleep, she felt a hand touching her breasts and later, her hand stroking a penis.
“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,” she recounted.
What saved her, she said, was her comment that she had HIV hence the need for a condom in order for the ‘rapist’ to not contract the disease. After a while, the unidentified man left the room in search of a condom with a promise that “he’d be back with a condom”.
Zainab said she later reported the issue to the police but the reception at the police station was awful.
Below is her account as shared on Twitter:
has been the most painful and traumatic experience I’ve ever faced in my entire life. Infact! I’m glad I’m still alive today to share my story.
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
MY 23rd BIRTHDAY VACATION WENT WRONG IN ZANZIBAR , TANZANIA
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I eventually witnessed and experienced in Tanzania.
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
It was a 2-day flight as we had a one day transit time in Adis Ababa Ethiopia. I arrived at my hotel WARERE BEACH hotel in Nungwi Zanzibar on the 16th of April, 2021 in the afternoon around 4pm where I had booked a 6 pic.twitter.com/JcqYlbikQm
I couldn’t do much except eat dinner as I was tired from my flight and I just wanted to sleep.
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
My itinerary the next day was to spend sometime to explore the hotel whilst I settle fully into vacation mode before I’d start my tourist activities which I never got the time to do
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At around 12am, a few friends and family called to wish me a happy birthday and then I went back to my room to sleep. Few hours into my sleep, I started to feel a strange hand touching my breast.“ Now, this was me sleeping naked on my bed in my hotel room with my doors locked
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
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Low 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 cause the room was dark as I had switched off the lights before I went to bed. Now, I was extremely scared
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
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In this moment, I became very scared as I didn’t know who this was and why this person was in my room. A lot of things were going through my head at the same time. Who is this ? Does he have a weapon ? Will I get raped and killed on my birthday in a strange land?
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
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Who else is outside my door? Is he the only one? Does he have a knife? Will he stab me?
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
While all these was going through my head, this man tried to climb on top of me in an attempt to force his penis inside of me.
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I was crying profusely now and needed to find a quick way to distract him so I started begging him not to rape me but he didn’t understand English as he kept on speaking Swahili to me. I then lied to him that I have HIV and he’d need to get a condom before sleeping with me.
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
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So I continued begging him and telling him I’d allow him have sex with me but he’d need to go get a condom so as not to get HIV. I saw that he reacted to the word “HIV” so I kept on saying HIV whilst crying profusely at this point.
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
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As I struggled to not let him strangle me, he left the room and told me he’d be back with a condom.
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
Immediately he left, I switched on the light, tried to call hotel reception but to my surprise, there was no intercom or phone lines to reach the hotel reception through the
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I couldn’t stay back in the room and wait for the rapist to come back. Hell! Who knows what would happen to me this time around when he comes back to my room.
Should I leave my room? I don’t know who or what is outside my hotel room either!22
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
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 in my room. I quickly put some clothes on and left my room barefooted so as not to make noise when I get out
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
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but I thought to myself "what if this was the person (s) who actually attacked me? ” Then I became extremely scared cause I’d have to find a way to get to the reception without those men seeing me.
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
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was no one in all these rooms at the reception?
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
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.
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I hoped their room wouldn’t be locked so incase I get noticed, I would be able to call for help before anything happens to me.
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
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
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At 6am in the morning, I left Alex’s room and went back to the reception. Still didn’t find anyone there .
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
I called my Taxi driver “Mr Suley” to come pick me up and take me to the police station as I waited at the hotel reception/restaurant
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back to bed. My phone battery was low at this point so I had to go back to my room to pick up my charger. On getting to my room, I checked my bag where I had kept my money and then I realized my money was missing!
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
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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.
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
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When we got to the police station, I was asked to write my statement which I did. The police men asked me to narrate the incident to them and they advised I go to the hospital to go do a check up if I was raped or not.
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
38 pic.twitter.com/FEe5kb48fn
I stood my ground and said I wouldn’t delete any picture. The police chief at the Nungwi police station then said he wouldn’t let them take me to the hospital for checkup if I don’t delete my pictures and videos
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
40 pic.twitter.com/0aQfZoJTYN
This is the chief of police at the Nungwi police station in Zanzibar, Tanzania who said I should delete all my pictures and videos. They knew I didn’t understand Swahili and never spoke English so I couldn’t hear what they were conversing about.
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
42. pic.twitter.com/kFX5KzAT0F
When we got to the hospital, the nurse confirmed that there was no penetration. I got back to the police station and the police men said they have no issue for the sexual assault since I wasn’t raped . That the only issue here was my stolen money .
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
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This was 3pm already. This day was my BIRTHDAY. My friends and family back in Lagos didn’t know all that was happening to me in Zanzibar. I was so frustrated, sad and scared. How could the police do this to me? How could the hotel do this to me?
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
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I’m sorry but I’d need a break to continue as typing this is very overwhelming and sharing this is a whole lot more than I imagined. I’ll be back
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
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The hotel has closed off their comment section on Instagram but I won’t stop till everyone boycotts this crazy hotel. The owner and manager said I lied about my experience
— Zainab Oladehinde (@zainabdehinde) April 16, 2022
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