Tourism commission, Zanzibar hotel responds to sexual assault allegations by Nigerian woman

Warere Beach Hotel  Zanzibar has responded to sexual assault claims made by a Nigerian woman on Saturday, April 16.

At the same time Zanzibar’s Commission for Tourism expressed its disappointment with the allegations.

In the statement, Hafsa Mbaba, condemned the act saying investigations into the allegations had commenced.

The Nigerian national, Zainab Oladehinde on Saturday April 16, shared the traumatic experience which happened in 2021 when she visited Zanzibar for a vacation on her birthday.

According to Warere Beach Hotel 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.

“This incident happened a year ago in April of 2021 but I haven’t been able to talk about it because I’ve been in therapy for a year to heal from the psychological trauma as this experience,” she writes.

Zainab says she travelled alone from Lagos, Nigeria to Zanzibar, Tanzania on April 15, 2021, for her 23rd birthday.

She alleges that while sleeping naked at night she felt a man touch her.

She says they struggled as the man tried to forcefully have his way with her before she convinced him to go bring a condom, something the-would-be rapist obliged.

“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 how he reacted to the word “HIV” so I kept on saying HIV whilst crying profusely at this point,” Zainab tweeted.

She goes 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 the man had 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 $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.

She was taken to hospital, where 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,” she writes

She also says that when they returned to the station police men at the Nungwi police station in Zanzibar bullied and harassed her.

“Told me to leave their police station that I wasn’t raped and they had confirmed there was no penetration from the nurses.”