gooo/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>culled from Punch
16 year Gloria, a year one senior secondary school student, lives with her
married brother gave birth to a baby in September 30, 2014.
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.
According to Saturday Punch
,a 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 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 raping me,” Gloria began. “He started one
day when I was washing plates and he started to touch me in the private
part and breast.”
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 raped 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 rape 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 raped 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,”
When Gloria’s angry brother and other relations confronted Okparanta with the rape 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 raped 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,” Yes, I gave her brother a cheque
because they were accusing me that I was responsible,” “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.”“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.”
But did he think he could be responsible since he has admitted sleeping with the girl?He said,
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.”
