Roda who worked as a maid for professional Lebanese chef Hussein in his Allen Avenue residence has narrated how she was raped twice by her boss Hussein.
I started working with the man as a maid immediately I came to Lagos. He agreed to pay me N10,000 monthly as my salary. When I packed into the house, my boss was not around but he came back two days later from his work place.
On this particular day, my boss was about to leave the house when his brother asked me to go and meet him and collect some money to purchase food items for the house. I knocked on his door, he answered and asked me to come inside. When I entered, I told him that his brother asked me to collect money to purchase food items. He said okay and got up from where he was sitting, and pretended as if he wanted to get the money before he grabbed me forcefully. I struggled with him and was shouting but he over powered me and raped me.
The following month when I discovered that I had missed my monthly cycle, I informed him about it but instead of finding solution to it, he raped me a second time. I then kept disturbing him about the growing pregnancy. What he did was to send me to a nearby chemist with a prescription but the attendant refused to attend to me without his presence. He later went with me and bought some drugs which he asked me to take to abort the pregnancy. I took the drugs but nothing happened. After some days, he bought another set of drugs which I took, yet, nothing happened. I then became very worried and was disturbing him to find a solution to the problem he caused. That was when he started threatening me and later sacked me after paying me N19,000. I was so afraid that when I went back to my brother who brought me to Lagos, I didn’t tell him that I was pregnant for my boss. I was just praying that the pregnancy will just disappear but it did not. Unknown to my brother that I was pregnant, he got me another job where I worked for four months as a maid before my new employer discovered that I was pregnant and told my brother.
Speaking to Crime Guard, Rhoda’s brother Joshua, said,
It was January this year that we discovered she was pregnant. Her stomach was still flat and we had to take her for scan. It was then she revealed that her former boss, Hussein, was responsible for her pregnancy. So, we went to Hussein’s house to confront him but he denied being responsible for the pregnancy. We therefore reported the case to the Immigration Department in Ikeja and on February 9, 2016, he was arrested but was later released
From immigration department, my sister was taken to the National Agency For The Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP. Initially, officials of NAPTIP said she would be with them until she delivers but last week, officials of the agency came and asked me to come and take my sister back as she will soon deliver. The pressure and threats from NAPTIP became too much to the extent that I don’t know whether they are protecting the interest of my sister who was abused by a foreigner or that of the foreigner.
The next morning, one Hassan called claiming to be the nephew of Hussein. He said his sister informed him of our visit to his residence the previous day. According to him, whatever happened between his Hussein and Roda was a mistake and that they were doing everything within to resolve the issue while Hussein has agreed to take care of Roda until she gives birth. He however added that a DNA will be carried out to determine the paternity of the baby but the family will not refuse to take responsibility.
When Vanguard visited the residence of
the Hussein in Ikeja, he was not around but a lady in the house promised
to inform him about their visit and get back to them.
Vanguard also visited the Ikeja Zonal
Office of NAPTIP but could not meet the Director as he was said to have
traveled out of the state for official duty. A lady who said she was the
Public Relations Officer told them that only the Director was
authorized to speak to the press on the issue and promised to get back
to them when the Director gets back, but since then, her contacts have
been unreachable according toVanguard.
Source: Vanguard
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