Raped at knifepoint
Juliana Francis
Ms Ngozi, a mother of one was raped at knifepoint in her dinghy apartment at Gowon Estate axis of Lagos State on the 12th of November 2022.
It was a day she will never forget. Days before that horrific incident, she has been feeling incredibly, running temperature and throwing up, but had embarked on self-medication due to lack of money.
She recalled that the frequency of the vomiting weakened her, and so on that fateful day, after another bout of vomiting, she felt spent and decided to sleep.
She tied only wrapper sarong fashion and underneath it, she had no bra or panties. It was her apartment after all she said.
She was already asleep when she sensed someone entering her room. She initially thought it was her 11 years old daughter and was not too worried.
But when she opened her eyes and saw a young man called Sulaimon, her sleep disappeared from her eyes. Sulaimon is a family member of those that own the building, so technically, he is part of the landlord of the building, where Ngozi lives.
She stared at him, petrified with fear and shock. According to Ngozi, most people in the community kept away from the boy because he smokes Indian, which his father used to quarrel with him over.
Ngozi stated that Sulaimon and his father were not on speaking terms with her and she too usually avoided them.
On that fateful day, different thoughts rioted through her head. She could not understand, why one of the persons who treated her like an enemy was in her apartment.
She asked him weakly: “What do you want? What are you doing in my house?”
Rather than reply, the suspect grabbed a kitchen and pounced on her.
Remembering the nightmare like it was yesterday, Ngozi wept uncontrollably and whispered: “I tried to fight him, I tried to push him off me, I was shouting, but I was too weak. I have never felt this ashamed and dirty in my life.”
An undergraduate, identified as Michael, who heard her feeble voice, noticed Sulaimon and stormed into the room.
Michael repeatedly tried to wrest Sulaimon off Ngozi, but he refused to budge; at least not until the boy grabbed a weapon and slammed it on his head.
At that point, Ngozi’s daughter had come into the room, seeing and witnessing her mom’s predicament, screaming, ran outside, calling for help and soon, a crowd gathered.
Ngozi said: “My room is very small and when he barged in, he saw a bucket filled with plates, and spoons and grabbed the knife from there. I initially thought he came to steal my phone, I didn’t know he came to dehumanize me. The boy that came to rescue me is called Michael. He threatened to stab Michael with the knife.”
Ngozi, who is a poor and struggling single mom wanted justice but had no money for a lawyer. She ran to Esther Child Rights Foundation, founded by Ms Esther Ekwem, a human rights activist.
The matter was transferred from the Gowon Police Station to Gender Unit, Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja, where Sulaimon allegedly feigned being mentally deranged and then his age, which was earlier placed at 22, was reduced to 16 and presently stands at 15.
Indeed, the father presented an affidavit in court, swearing that his son was now 15. The matter is being heard at Ilori Magistrate Court, Ogba, Lagos State.
But what broke Ngozi and now causing her sleeplessness was what she alleged the magistrate said to her, the last time she and the accused were in court.
She said: “Since the matter started, there had been a series of lies fabricated by that boy and his family. At the court, the boy told the Magistrate that I was the person that invited him to my room and started rubbing his penis. The magistrate asked where was my husband, I replied that I was a single mother, and she said that she believed the boy. I tried to speak, but she was not interested in listening to me.”
At this point, she started crying again. The case would be coming up on the 29th of November, 2022, but she felt it would be a waste of time to continue to go to court because the magistrate had already taken a stand.
“I don’t understand it. There were many witnesses to what happened to me, I don’t know why this magistrate said such words to me. How could she even think that I would make up this? What do I stand to gain?” asked Ngozi rhetorically.
As if that was not enough trauma, Ngozi, who was advised by police personnel to keep away from the scene of the rape for her safety and had been squatting with a friend, suddenly received a call from people in the community. Apparently, someone spread the news that she was the one that invited Sulaimon into her room and caressed his manhood before she started calling for help.
The caller also told her that another story making the round was that the magistrate had acquitted Sulaimon because it was discovered that Ngozi lied.
“When the person asked that, I was shocked that the story, which was started in the courtroom, in the presence of that magistrate had gone around the community. I felt like dying! Since that rape incident, I had been avoiding that community because keep stopping me to say, ‘we heard what happened, sorry.’ I didn’t like that reminder. I don’t know if I can survive this shame,” groaned Ngozi.
She remembered that following the rape, and a crowd that gathered on that fateful day, Sulaimon had run into the apartment he shared with his father and locked himself in.
Even when police, he refused to open the door for them.
Two women, who were passersby, heard the commotion coming from the compound where Ngozi lives and like other members of the crowd, went to look. It was when they saw Ngozi’s condition, that they used their money to charter a tricycle, and ensured she went to the police station to lodge a complaint.
She said: “Those two women were angels. I don’t know them from Adam. If I see them today, I don’t think I would be able to recognise them. I was feeling weak and tired. I was just crying at the police station when I was asked what had happened. And till now, I’m still crying.”
Ngozi, who used to preach and carry out evangelism for God, did not understand why God should allow such a calamity to befall her.
Her words: “I got out every Friday to preach the gospel. I don’t think God will allow me to be put to shame.”
Speaking on the matter after Ngozi narrated the mini-drama that took place in the court to her, Ekwem said: “I was shocked when she said that the magistrate did not believe. I strongly feel for her because she’s going through a lot. There’s nothing wrong with being a single mom and it’s not a crime and it doesn’t mean she sleeps around. Ngozi is not asking for too much from the government or the Criminal Justice system, she’s just asking for justice! Let me use this opportunity to implore single moms, to watch out and give second look at places they go to rent apartments. They need to be careful of the kind of men that live around such places. Most times, they take advantage of single moms. I know that Ngozi will get justice. Right the kite they are flying is the perpetrator is underage, but when the matter started he was 22 years old. I urge other human rights advocates and women’s rights advocates to come forward and fight for Ngozi. I also urged the government to look into this matter so that justice will not be truncated.”
Ngozi did not always use to be poor and appeared weak, tearful, worried and fretful. She used to be a strong woman, but the marriage broke her.
Before she got married in 2010, she worked with a pharmaceutical company and had money. She was financially strong and she even bought a commercial bus for her husband. But when she lost her job, her rosy marriage, become one filled with thorns.
She said: “I didn’t know he came for my money. After I lost my job, he took to beating me. Before I married him, I had made up my mind that I would never divorce or have children with different men. I was ready to stay and keep to my marriage vows no matter the problem. But the torture was too much for me in that marriage. I had my daughter through CS, but my abandoned us in the hospital and other patients had to be giving us food. Till today, we’re still owing that hospital N52,000. The major problem was his womanising and refusing to take care of us. After the arrival of the baby, the situation worsened. My baby was three months when my family asked me to return to the village so that he wouldn’t kill me.”
Ngozi stayed a year and six months in the village with her baby, waiting for her husband to come with the traditional wine as an apology to her family and to take them back home as Igbo customs demanded, but he did not.
“Different pastors asked me to return to my husband, so I did. But he started beating me again,” Ngozi said.
Fearful that the man would soon beat her to death, Ngozi left with her daughter to stay with a friend called Vicki. She took to cleaning houses for people, doing their laundry and selling fairly used clothes and those days she used to strap her baby behind in the scorching sun and rain. She just needed to survive. She even worked as a security guard.
During the outbreak of Covid-19, she lost three jobs, each after another.
She told securitynewsalert.com, that her major challenge had always been feeding and rent. Most times, she had to go begging from friends in order to be able to raise house rent.
She said: “It will be good and appreciated if state governments can provide shelter for people like us; battered women go through a lot. Whenever I had to squat with friends and my daughter went to squat with other people, she always cried. It has not been easy for both of us.”
She said that since the rape incident, her fragile peace of mind has shattered. She cannot sleep or walk freely without fearing that someone will stop her to talk about a rape she was battling to forget.
In her quest for justice, she went to her church to approach a member, who is a lawyer, but he asked her to bring N100,000.
Ngozi as at the day securitynewsalert.com spoke with her, had no job, squats with a friend, depends on others to eat and thus had no financial withal to hire a lawyer.
The next hearing for the case at Ilori Magistrate Court is 29th of November, 2022.
Securitynewsalert.com will keep monitoring the matter as it unfolds in court.
