Zanzibar-based Warere Beach Hotel has responded to sexual assault allegations made by a Nigerian woman on Saturday, April 16 at around 1 pm on Twitter.
Zainab Oladehinde took to the micro-blogging application and shared her experience a year ago when she travelled to Zanzibar for a vacation on her birthday.
In a Facebook post on Sunday morning, Warere Beach Hotel said the matter was reported to relevant authorities who classified the case as personal, and not the hotel’s negligence.
“We tried our best to support Ms Zainab Oladehinde as soon as we learned of the accusations. We immediately brought her to the police and offered her support,” Warere hotel posted on Facebook.
The hotel also faulted the aggrieved client, Zainab, for declining to take the case further after pursuing numerous avenues in her quest for justice.
“Ms Zainab declined to take the case further. Ms Zainab Oladehinde was informed that the hotel would abide by damages rewarded by the court system of Zanzibar,’ the hotel added.
The hotel says it was ready to meet the compensation awarded to Zainab by the courts.
Moreover, the hotel’s management claims it was hacked on Saturday, adding it had received over 4,000 negative reviews in three hours from people it believes have never stayed at their facility.
There was an uproar on social media for the better part of the weekend following the Nigerian woman’s sexual assault allegations while on vacation in April 2021.
In her narration, Zainab travelled alone from Lagos, Nigeria to Zanzibar, Tanzania on April 15, 2021, for her 23rd birthday.
She alleges that while sleeping naked at night (presumably due to the hot East African coastline weather) she felt a man touch her.
She says they struggled as the man tried to forcefully have his way with her before he convinced him to go bring a condom. He agreed.
“So I continued begging him and telling him I’d allow him to 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 tweeted.
Then went on, “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 hotel reception but to my surprise, there were no intercom or phone lines to reach the hotel reception through the room,”
She adds that once he left, she sneaked out, barefoot, tiptoeing not to be noticed. She sought refuge from a Russian couple she had met earlier.
The next morning, she went back to her room and found her cash USD 1, 100 missing from her bag. She adds that she reported to the police who just harassed and bullied her instead of helping her out.
This morning, a statement by the Commission for Tourism Zanzibar shared through Visit Tanzania’s official Twitter page, expressed its disappointment with the allegations.
In the statement, Hafsa Mbaba, condemned the act saying investigations into the allegations had commenced.
“It is a regrettable incident which we are following closely,” the commission said.
Source: TheStandard
