Helen (surname withheld) will be 20
years on October 10. But she now bears a burden that is too heavy for her age.
She was gang-raped in January this year and was diagnosed with HIV last month.
Due to the heart-rending experience and the medical diagnosis that followed,
the once cheerful and vivacious Helen now wears a long face as she carries with
her the psychological burden of the experience. After secondary school in 2008,
Helen wanted to further her education, but being the fifth of 11 children comes
with its own challenge. “Na the condition of no money, na im prevent me from
going further,” said Helen when asked why she had not bothered to continue her
education. Despite her background, Helen was unperturbed. Determined that she
would return to school some day, she began working as a cleaner in a big firm
at Lekki, Lagos, from where she hoped to save for school. She had worked there
for almost a year before the tragic episode that altered her life dramatically
took place. It was with a deep emotion that she recounted her ordeal. Follow Us
All was quiet and the street lonely early that Tuesday morning when the
unsuspecting lady set out from her Bariga home to resume her morning shift at
work. It was at exactly 5:05am, the same time she often left home everyday to
board a bus some streets away to Lagos Island. But that morning, something was
not right. She noticed five young men lurking about as she got out of her
street’s gate. On seeing their fearsome appearance, her heart skipped a beat.
Consumed by fear, her first instinct was to turn and run back into the street,
but it was too late. She had been spotted. “They blocked and grabbed me. They
pointed a gun at me and told me to be quiet and do everything they said I
should do, or else they would harm me,” Helen said before she was overcome by
emotion. After a short silence that seemed ages, she added: “I tried to shout
but when I looked around and did not see anybody except those guys, I was so
afraid and did as they said… They, then, carried me to one corner by the side
of the street… (She bowed her head). They asked me to lie down.” Helen went
silent again with head still bowed, to hold back tears. She said: “I begged
them to release me, that I was on my way to work and that I didn’t have
anything to offer them. They told me to shut up, saying they would waste me, if
I didn’t like my life. I begged them to spare my life.” Her plea touched a
member of the gang; he said she should be freed. But his statement fell on deaf
ears, for Helen’s other attackers were determined to carry out their task to
the letter. Fighting back tears, she said: “The others said he could leave if
he wanted to; they then collected my handbag, my purse and the N5,000 inside
with my two phones – one was in my hand. I used its torchlight; the other was
in my Jeans pocket. They removed the phone, pulled off my trousers and started
violating me (Silence)…They asked me to pull off my clothes. I begged them.”
Her face became contorted as the agony of the incident swelled her being. Helen
became silent again. One could see she was fighting to hide several conflicting
emotions as she recounted. “But was there no way you could have shouted for
help?” the reporter asked in an attempt to douse the tension. “There was no way
I could have shouted because there were five of them against only me… I was so
scared. So, I just kept begging them to release me.” As her attackers were
beginning to enjoy their violent act, they spotted another young man and lady
walking towards them. Helen’s attackers also pounced on the couple, robbing
them of their valuables at gunpoint. Two of them also raped the second lady. By
that time, Helen’s eyes were already swollen, from her trauma and obvious
helplessness in the hands of the crooks. The two men raped the girl while the
other three continued raping me,” she said in a subdued voice. On how she felt
when her violators had their turns, Helen, in tears, said: “I swallowed my
scream, felt very bad and closed my eyes as each of them…(Silence). For my mind
e be like say make I get knife take kill them, because it was a very painful
thing to experience. Before they started, I had asked if they had condoms but
they said ‘No’. ‘’ After they finished, all I could think of was running to the
hospital and getting some drugs or treatment that could wash everything away
from my whole being: my physical body, heart, soul and all. (Again, she lapsed
into another silence). I felt very bad and, somehow, dirty.” After the incident
She ran back home to her sister. Both ladies cried in silence; they felt
ashamed to share with neighbours what had happened. As if that was not enough,
while nursing the psychological trauma of the assault she got, another shocker
happened to her on the same day. Helen discovered that her violators were her
neighbours. “I recognised them: two of them live opposite my house. Before that
time, I did not notice them. I see them every day and cringe; I’m always in
fear each time I see them,” she said. Three months after Besides the traumatic
rape, Helen has fallen into a worrisome medical condition. Last month, she was
diagnosed with HIV at the General Hospital where she was rushed to after she
was raped. Before then, Helen said she had been “negative”, adding that she
knew through a test she did some time back. “When I went there when it first
happened, they asked me some questions, gave me some drugs and told me to come
back after three months for more tests. The three-month period lapsed last
month. The hospital did the followup test and found that I have become
HIV-’positive’. ‘’I felt bad, very bad; and I cried. In fact, the doctor tried
to calm my mind; but I kept on crying that ‘I’m finished’. I wanted to take my
life because I never expected this to happen to me. They told me life still
goes on and that I can still live my life to the fullest. They say people with
HIV are can be healthier than those who are negative with the help of drugs.
Before I left the hospital, I cried and begged them to help me because I did
not plan to live on drugs for rest of my life,” she said. With tears dripping
freely and looking straight at the reporter as if to find answers on her face,
she continued: “What kind of life can one live now? I feel so bad; I feel so
weak and I am asking myself: what did I do wrong in this life to deserve this?
What will happen to my dream of going to school? I have not been able to save
for school, and I now am treating HIV.” The news of her status has added more
sadness to her family who were still recovering from the shock of her
violation. “When my parents heard the news, they were very sad and they all
cried,” Helen said amid tears. The 20-year-old has since turned an advocate,
seeking justice against her attackers. After living in fear for months, the
dread of the rapists forced her and her sister to relocate last weekend. The
move has emboldened to seek for justice, feeling she is beyond their reach. “I
want justice. I need help. I want those men to go to jail for what they did to
me and perhaps many other ladies in the area. These people cannot be allowed to
go free. Everybody knows them as thieves in the area; they do not go to work or
school but just hang around all day doing nothing. Still nobody has done
anything about it. It is almost as if they are using charms. Their father is a
very aggressive landlord. I see them always and I’m always in fear; that’s why
we packed out of the house last weekend. You won’t believe that till we packed,
my attackers are still using my phone,” she said. Helen’s sister, Stella, who
was also in her 20s, said the whole incident has left the family heart-broken.
Stella, who learnt a comforting hand to her sister, said: “We felt so weak and
very unhappy, but there is nothing else we can do but to support her and pray
that those crooks would be made to pay and suffer for what they did to my
sister.
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