Sometime after I turned fourteen (14) years, my father had gone to work during the week. I was home alone because I was sick. My dad reminded me to take my medication while promising to check up on me frequently. He also told me to reach out to our neighbor Mr. Ossai if there was any emergency, after which he bid me goodbye and left. I did not remember to lock the door but I summoned courage, stood up, went to the bathroom to have my bath. It was not long after that I heard the door open and I thought it was my dad. Probably he left something behind which he came back to pick up. I called out “Daddy” loudly but there was no response, so I continued having my bath. When I finished bathing, I came to the sitting room only to see our neighbor Mr. Ossai sitting on the long sofa in the room. I told him my father was not around, he asked me to sit down and that he had something he needed to tell me. I asked him to come back and tell me when my dad was around. He ignored my words, stood up, dragged me to the long sofa, pulled my towel off my body, pinned me down, covered my mouth, used his penis to penetrate my vagina and raped me.

When he finished, he threatened to kill me, brought out an object like a charm and told me, I would vomit blood if I ever told anyone hence, I could not tell anyone. I was in terrible pain, I had bruises in my vagina and I was also bleeding in my vagina region. It was my first sexual experience, a painful experience that I don’t wish for anyone. My father came back and thought something was not right with me. He tried talking to me but I kept telling my father, it was nothing, that I had a migraine and he suggested taking me back to the hospital for a change of prescription but I told him that it was too soon to change my medication. All this was due to the fear of the threat, which I thought would happen if I spoke up. He told my mother who was so worried and wanted to take permission to come home but I lied to her that it was dad just exaggerating so she calmed down. I wished I had known the danger of not speaking up when abused or assaulted.

From that day, my neighbor began molesting me more frequently whenever my father went to work and I was home alone. My father was always telling him our routine so he knew exactly when to come in to sexually molest me. I lost count of how many times Mr Ossai had raped me after a while and this continued until I was eighteen (18) years old. My parents suspected something was wrong because I was always isolating myself from others, I was also having mood swings, flashbacks and living in fear. The worst of them was that it affected my grades and I began performing poorly in school. How I was able to conceal so much pain emotionally and psychologically still baffles me till date. When I turned eighteen, I was still in Senior Secondary School three. A new teacher moved to our school, she was friendly, jovial and very observant. She took upon herself to be my friend and she kept asking questions so I could open up but I did not, then she told me that I could set up whatever my pain was and I took her advice.

I saw Mr. Ossai and told him that my father was traveling after he visited his friend that afternoon, his routine visits, then my neighbor said my father must have forgotten to inform him. He smiled foolishly and I knew he would come in that afternoon. He saw that my father had left for a while then he came in as usual and I played along. I knew my dad would be back suddenly because his friend was out of town. His daughter, who we both attended the same school, told me that they were traveling that day. My father’s usual routine was to spend the afternoon with him, he left without calling his friend, hence I knew he would be back shortly. I tuned the volume of the TV set loudly to distract the perpetrator from hearing the sound of my dad’s car, when he returned. According to what my father told me, while on his way, he received his friend’s call that he had to travel urgently out of town. My father returned home, entered the parlor and caught Mr Ossai having sexual intercourse with me. My father was frozen, then he recovered, ran to the kitchen to get a knife, Mr. Ossai was lucky to have escaped a stab from my dad who was so furious. Mr. Ossai ran out naked as fast as he could for my dad chased after him while screaming for help for passersby to catch the perpetrator. Mr. Ossai, who was still naked, was caught by the neighborhood security and handed over to the police for sexually abusing me, a minor. The police referred us to the WARIF Center.