Warere Beach Hotel based in Zanzibar, Tanzania has responded to sexual assault allegations made by a Nigerian woman Zainab Oladehinde on Saturday.
Oladehinde took to Twitter and narrated her experience a year ago when she travelled to Zanzibar for a vacation on her 23rd birthday.
She said that while sleeping naked at night she felt a man touch her. As they struggled, she said she told the man to get a condom.
“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,” Oladehinde 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.”
The Nigerian said she tiptoed, barefooted and left the room to seek refuge from a Russian couple she had met earlier.
The next morning, she said she went back to her room and found her cash $1,100 missing from her bag. Oladehinde said the police harassed and bullied her instead of helping her out.
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,” the hotel posted on Facebook.
It also faulted the woman 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 said it was ready to meet the compensation awarded to Oladehinde by the courts.
Also, the hotel’s management claimed 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.
Reacting to the allegations, the commission for tourism in Zanzibar expressed its disappointment in a statement on Sunday signed by Hafsa Mbaba.
“It is a regrettable incident which we are following closely,” the commission said on Twitter.
