The story of Kikelomo, 32, (surname withheld) is very pathetic and depicts the agonies of orphans and the predicaments faced by couples who are in desperate need of a child.
On Friday in Abuja, Kikelomo painted a sad picture of how she was forced to have sex with her aunty’s husband and became pregnant in the process. That was not all: she contracted staphylococcus as a result of continuous sexual harassment from a man she called “daddy.”
Although she could not give details of how she lost her parents, Kikelomo became an orphan when she was two-year-old. She was adopted by the couple.
Her first sexual experience with her uncle was when she was just 14-year-old.
Kikelomo, who is now married, gave the shocking revelation during a moot court trial organised by a group, the Network of the Bar, Bench and Police on Reproductive Health and Rights.
The event was sponsored by a Non-Governmental Organisation, Ipas, which has Dr. Ejike Orji as its country director.
Others in attendance include Justice Ishaq Bello of an Abuja High Court; a Justice of the Court of Appeal (Ilorin Division), Justice Centhus Nweze; and a Justice of the Customary Court of Appeal, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, Justice Enemi Ojoko.
Kikelomo, who consistently referred to her aunty’s husband as “daddy,” stated that during one of her sexual encounters with the man, she became pregnant and medical report confirmed that she was carrying conjoined twins.
She said, “The doctor said the foetus was a set of conjoined twins. The doctor told my mother (her aunty) that abortion is illegal in Nigeria. But a friend of mine advised me on how to get rid of the pregnancy. We mixed potash; I swallowed it and I started having serious complications.
‘’The doctor diagnosed me and said I had a partial abortion. According to the doctor, part of the babies was already off and damaged. I was arrested by the police and detained for nine days.
“My daddy (uncle) had threatened to kill me if I reveal the identity of the person who impregnated me. My uncle and aunty had been married for 10 years without a child. He said the pregnancy should not be aborted because they could be twin boys. But when I couldn’t keep it again, I told my aunty what I did and she wept uncontrollably. I was at the police station in Abuja when Ipas came to my rescue, got me released and took over my case.”
In his welcome address at the occasion, the National Coordinator of the group, Mr. Paul Eshiemomoh, decried the low premium placed on women by the society despite the multiple roles they played as wives and home makers.
He said, “I make bold to say that we are here because we do not love our women. If we love our women, we would not allow them to die needlessly; if we love our women we would not take advantage of their feminity by raping them.
“If we love them we would not build hospitals without equipment; if we love our women we would not turn them to mere baby-making machines. If our women’s reproductive rights are respected, protected and guaranteed, there would be no need for this trial.”
Source : The Punch Newspaper.
PS : What should be done to this 'daddy' (uncle)?
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