When other young ladies would be flaunting the new additions to their wardrobe this yuletide, 23-year-old Ngozi Okoye (real name concealed) will be sad and bemoaning the evil fate that befell her just days before Christmas.
Shapely Ngozi, a native of Ogidi, Idemili North Local Government Area, Anambra State, who had vowed to go into marriage as a virgin, was brutally raped by her elder brother's best friend on December 16, 2013, leaving her shattered into a 1000 pieces like the windshield of a car, her virgin blood spilled and highly treasured virtue forever taken by a scoundrel.
Even more pathetic is the fact that she escaped the mayhem of Boko Haram in troubled Bauchi State, only to be savaged by the foul, filthy hands and mind of a son-of-the-devil lurking at home, in the heart of Igboland. For her the rape experience is like a case of running from frying pan into fire. Ngozi's taste of hell on earth began on Monday, December 16, when she went to her shop behind the Obosi Town hall, Obosi, also in Idemili North LGA to do her normal business of running a beer palour with her elder brother, which he set up to survive the hard times after relocating home in the wake of the incessant Boko Haram bombings in Bauchi.
As if the devil was playing a one-person chess game in which she was the pawn, the evil being first sent the woman that sold the shop to Ngozi's brother at the cost of N60,000, who showed up to seek payment of the balance of N15,000 after the brother had paid an initial sum of N45,000. Recalling how she came into the picture, Ngozi said: "My brother told me about how people who came to the shop always requested for fresh fish peppersoup and other delicacies.
As I had not found anything to do since we returned from Bauchi, my brother pleaded with me to join him in Obosi so that I could be preparing the delicacies and selling to customers who come to the shop to drink. When I came, we started the business and it was still trying to stand when one day, the woman that sold the shop to my brother came. "She was doing the same business like us, so she left behind some plastic chairs and a deep freezer. As my brother could not afford to buy his own freezer, we decided to be using the woman's own with her consent anyway.
Then one day, she told my brother to give her N20,000 so she could leave the freezer for us. My brother agreed; we were still trying to raise money to pay for it and also complete the payment for the shop when she came on Monday to carry the freezer." "The day before, on Sunday, and I had gone to the market and bought some fresh fish and meat. I put these items in the deep freezer for preservation. So as I was about cleaning the shop the next day when the woman came and began shouting on top of her voice that she must take the freezer away. I was still pleading and telling her I kept something in the freezer when she stormed out and returned in company with two men who I noticed were commercial motorcyclists. She ordered them to go into the shop and bring out the freezer. They came in and threw the fish, meat and every other item in the freezer out and took it away."
Rapist appears, promising Greek gift As Ngozi was lamenting over the sudden turn of events that spoiled her sales projections for the season, the evil being moved another of his chess pieces to act out his assigned role: the suspect, Tochukwu Nebo, popularly called Baby Boy in Obosi showed up with an offer to give Ngozi another freezer to enable her to continue with the business since her elder brother happened to be his friend. Probably elated, she did not recognize the Greek gift the son-of-the-devil was dangling before her.
Her words: "I was still crying that my last hope of continuing the business of selling fresh fish and peppersoup had been aborted by the woman when she took the deep freezer away. Then Toochukwu (we call him Baby Boy) who is my elder brother's friend came to me. I thought he came to help me. There was a time he took refuge in our house when he was wanted for something in Obosi. So he came to the shop that Monday and tried to console me, saying that I should stop crying. He said he had three deep freezers; that he would go home, consult his wife and then give me one to continue my business. He left and after about one hour later, he came back and told me to follow him to his house so that we could discuss with his wife.
Some of our male friend are not to allowed even one inch to our sisiters.