please take your time to read this touching story
No one could have imagined that 16-year-old
Gloria (not real name) was just two weeks
away from the delivery of a child on
September 3, 2014.
“I noticed her neck was full and darker, those
were the only signs I saw. So, I asked if she
was pregnant. Her expression and answer
showed she had no idea she was indeed
pregnant,” a neighbour who unravelled the
mystery of the pregnancy told Saturday Punch.
Gloria, a year one senior secondary school
student, lives with his married brother
unaware that she was about to become a
mother. But buried deeply in the girl’s heart
was a painful secret she had never told a soul.
The inquisitive neighbour was unconvinced.
She approached Gloria’s sister-in-law, who
also expressed the same concern that she was
afraid the girl might be pregnant.
“The sister-in-law had even taken the girl to
the hospital and had her urine tested for
pregnancy. But the test was negative. But I
insisted we take her back to hospital for a
blood test instead. I even had to pay for that,”
the neighbour, who pleaded anonymity, said.
The test result was positive. Gloria was
pregnant.
With threats, pleading and persuasion, Gloria’s
brother, Obi, tried to get the truth about who
was responsible out of Gloria, but the little
girl was too afraid to tell the truth.
Saturday Punch decided to withhold the
identity of the girl and those of her relations
because she is still a minor according to
provisions of the Lagos State Child Rights
Law, 2007.
The same neighbour, who had been friends
with the family for some years, eventually got
the girl to tell the truth, which shocked the
girl’s brother.
When our correspondent spoke with Gloria on
Thursday, there was no sign that she could
have been the mother of the child she held in
her arms.
Timid and innocent, she looked at the floor as
she spoke softly, delving into the account of a
sexual abuse she had gone through in the last
five years.
When Gloria’s brother brought her to Lagos
seven years ago from their village in Abakaliki,
Ebonyi State, it was to give her a semblance
of a better life, different from the pathetic one
she was said to be living in. Their mother had
just died at the time, while their aged father
back in the village was not doing too well
financially.
“She was living with me along with some of
my friends at the time. Things were still rough
for me and I was single.” Obi said.
Not long after this, Obi’s good friend from
Anambra State, a trader living in Mangoro
area of Lagos named Ugochukwu Okparanta,
said he would take over the care of the girl to
ease the financial burden off his friend while
the girl would help his wife with house chores.
“I was nine when I started living with Uncle
(Okparanta). But two years after I got there, he
started Molesting me,” Gloria began. “He
started one day when I was washing plates
and he started to touch me in the private part
and bosom.”
The girl became tearful. Her voice shook and
trailed off. But our correspondent assured her
that she was not going to be in trouble of any
kind by telling her story. Then she continued.
“He started by petting me, telling me I would
like it. I refused and became afraid. Then he
threatened me. He would tell me that I would
be in trouble if I did not do what he wanted,”
Gloria said.
Asked why she could not report the problem to
her brother, the girl said she thought nobody
would believe her.
“If I told Madam (Okparanta’s wife), she would
say I lied against her husband,” Gloria
explained. Then came one night, while her
boss’ wife slept in the couple’s room,
Okparanta sneaked out to the room Gloria
shared with his own daughter, an older girl.
She said, “He told me to follow him to the
sitting room. I obeyed. He Molested me and
while he did it, I was about to scream, but he
covered my mouth with his hand very tightly. I
was bleeding when he finished and I became
more scared but he smiled and said the blood
was normal.
“After that, he would molest me almost every
night. Madam did not know anything. Anytime
I refused, Uncle would threaten to deal with
me. There was a day I refused and when I
greeted him the following day, he did not
answer me.
“He reported me to his wife that I had become
pompous in his house and that I no longer
greeted him.”
This sexual abuse would continue for four
years, according to the girl, until 2013 when
his brother got married and brought her back
to help around the house.
However, in January 2014, the sexual abuse
the girl had kept secret and thought was over
would come back to haunt her.
“His wife had just had a miscarriage and I was
sent to go and help her for a few days. But in
the afternoon, when his children had gone to
school, he dragged me to his children’s room
and Molested me,” Gloria said.
Few days before that day, our correspondent
learnt that Gloria’s brother had even gone to
his ‘magnanimous’ friend, bearing a bottle of
wine, to thank him for taking care of his sister
over the years.
“I did not know in my wildest dream that the
man I see as my friend would do such a
terrible thing to my sister,” he said.
Nobody knew what damage had been done
until September 2014 when the symptoms of
pregnancy started to manifest in the girl’s
body.
“She is one of those people who could be
pregnant and her flat tummy would not make
anyone suspicious. I thought that if she was
pregnant, it would be in early stages and
could be aborted. I had no idea that she would
deliver in a few days,” the neighbour told our
correspondent.
The day Gloria gave birth, the girl who knew
nothing about motherhood was in labour for
hours in her room and thought she was having
a stomach ache.
She only screamed when her water broke, it
was learnt. But she had a crisis-free delivery
and gave birth to a healthy baby boy.
“I have never had sex with any other boy
before. I can swear on my life,” she said.
When Gloria’s angry brother and other
relations confronted Okparanta with the
molest allegation, he denied initially.
“He later admitted that he slept with her only
once,” Obi said.
When Saturday Punch spoke with Okparanta
on the phone, he initially went from feigning
ignorance to outright denial.
But when he was asked why he sent a cheque
of N50,000, to the girl’s brother, he hesitated
a little and admitted he Molested the girl
once.
“It is a lie that I started sleeping with her
since she was 11. Even last year, I did not
sleep with her,” Okparanta said.
“Yes, I gave her brother a cheque because they
were accusing me that I was responsible,” he
continued.
But did he think he could be responsible since
he has admitted sleeping with the girl?
He said, “I only slept with her once in January
and she was not a virgin at the time. That
was the last time I did it. I was not the first
person to sleep with her. I am not the one
that deflowered her.
“I was sleeping in the sitting room at the time.
I just felt someone touching me. I just did not
know how I slept with her after that. I hated
her since then.”
Our correspondent asked if it was true that he
and his wife had accused the girl of being
possessed, Okparanta said, “I did not know
what came over me that made me sleep with
her. I told his brother after the incident that
he should take her to a church for
deliverance.”
He told our correspondent that he did not tell
his friend that he ever slept with his sister.
“No, I did not. I just hated the girl and felt she
should not have made me to do such a bad
thing. I am currently discussing with the
family to see how we can take care of the
baby if indeed I am responsible.”
Child rights activist, Esther Ogwu, who had
taken up the case, said taking responsibility
for the care of the child was just a first step.
Ogwu, who is the Executive Director of Esther
Child Rights Foundation, said, “We are
working to ensure that justice is done in this
matter. But the welfare of the mother and
child is paramount. We are taking the matter
to the police, who will invite Okparanta for
interrogation.
“But it is necessary for families to be wary of
the environment where children they put
children they bring to Lagos from their
villages. Many of such children often times are
abused by adults who take advantage of their
ignorance and innocence.
SOURCE: http://www.punchng.com/feature/
super-saturday-crime/uncle-Molested-me-for-
four-years-16-yr-old-house-help-
impregnated-by-master/
[hupso]
