nine years old by one James Akpan. Though the culprit was later tried and sentenced to 15-month prison term for the criminal act, which he had since completed and moved on, the victim has been carrying the brunt of that horrendous experience.
The rape incident
has practically destroyed her life and even led to her being withdrawn from
school. At the family’s home in the Ajegunle area of Lagos metropolis, May 2,
almost two weeks ago, was for the family a day overcast with gloom and despair
as it was a day that Chi should have celebrated her 18th birthday with
thanksgiving, joy and the conviviality generally associated with such occasions
as friends and relations revel in the beauty of the day. But this was not so
for the hapless teenager.
Today, she
is in a pathetic state, deformed and suffering from health challenges. The once
happy and effervescent girl, who was doing well in school is now a caricature
of herself, unable to walk by herself, unable to talk audibly. Her mental
faculties have been so badly affected that she behaves abnormally. What is
living is just the shell of the once beautiful girl. Meanwhile Akpan, who is
now 51, and a father of two children from two different women, is out and
about, carrying on with his life’s pursuits, after serving the 15-month jail
term.
When Sunday
Sun visited the family, her parents, Chris Ewurum and Mercy Ewurum, the mother
could not hold back the tears that well up and cascaded down her cheeks as they
recalled the rape incident that took place on December 28, 2008, in their
former residence on Palace Road, Olodi- Apapa, Lagos State.
Your heart
would bleed watching her make a feeble attempt to stand and walk without
holding onto anything. When she tried to stand up, her legs trembled and then
she fell down. These days, as her mother, Mercy, disclosed, she has to bath
Chi, to avoid her falling and injuring herself. Her toes have become twisted,
her eyes have been affected and the head is larger and abnormal, compared to
her siblings. Her hands could not hold a bottle as it would fall from her shaky
hands. Since the incident, her memory has been flipping from normal to
abnormal, her mother said. Following the defilement, Chi has now been urinating
on herself.
Father
frustrated and angry
Father of
the teenager, Mr Christopher Ewurum said that he is absolutely convinced that
Akpan, who was convicted for the crime, had used his daughter for ritual
purpose. In the earnest quest to get the girl healed, she has been taken from
one church to the other, and from one native doctor to another as well as
Muslim alfas, all of who took money from the family, but the girl’s condition
remained the same as their efforts did not yield any fruitful result.
Ewurum who
hails from Mbaitolu Local Government Area, said: “I feel so bad each time I
look at my once beautiful daughter who is now suffering from the strange
ailment after she was defiled by James Akpan who was 42 years old then. He is
now 51 years-old while my daughter he raped at the age of nine years old is now
18 years old. I am so sad because since after he raped my daughter she is yet
to come back to her normal self. At 18
years, my daughter has not started to menstruate. My daughter who was once
strong and played energetically with her mates can no longer walk. If she
attempts to walk without holding the wall, she will fall. She cannot hold a
bottle firmly because it will fall and break. She wanted to put fire on the
stove but she fell, injuring herself in the head. Her left toes are twisted to
the right while the right toes are twisted to the left. Her hands cannot hold
anything firmly. She trembles when she walks. The incident has changed her life
from happiness to sadness. Today is her birthday but we have to stay indoors
with her, praying that God will perform a miracle in her life.”
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