PLIGHT OF A BENUE ORPHAN: Raped, Impregnated, Deprived of Her Baby

Ochanya is an orphan from Ado Local Government of Benue State. She lost her father before the age of seven. After losing her dad, Ochanya was left with no option than to return to the village to live with her grandfather.  But this did not go well for the little girl as her uncle, one Samuel began to play dirty with her right there in the village. She escalated this evil development to her grandfather who consequently sent Ochanya to go stay with her aunt in Sokoto before uncle Samuel defied her.
Ochanya’s stay in Sokoto was short lived; her aunt became mentally unstable. According to Ochanya, the aunt would always go violent with her due to her mental state. Ochanya had to be rescued but back to the village where her welfare was poor. Hungry often, Ochanya would depend on caging money from the villagers including men to survive at a tender age of thirteen. Sometimes she had to compromise sexually with men in order to feed.
Ochanya who did not intend to continue with the despicable lifestyle decided to leave the village for Abuja in pursuit of education.
“I saved some money and came to Abuja to meet my uncle. I told him I wanted to go to school,” Ochanya said.
But uncle Odan (A.K.A Jaro or Jahrule) declined to help the poor girl. His reason was that his hand was full as he had his own children to carter for and would not be able to do so if Ochanya joined. He therefore urged Ochanya to return to the village in Benue State. But Ochanya remained resolute to stay back in Abuja. This provoked Mr. Odan who resolved to beating the 13 year old Ochanya. But thanks to Linda, a woman from Cross River State who came to her rescue and decided to take care of the poor girl. The Good Samaritan Linda enrolled Ochanya back in primary school so she could complete her primary education. Linda’s daughter would take out time to educate Ochanya privately after school hours. Ochanya had stopped schooling since the age of seven when she lost her dad. She was in primary three at the time. Now at the age of thirteen, she had to skip primary four and five to resume primary six. This made the extra lesson very necessary.
After the primary education, Linda could not afford training Ochanya to secondary school level. The poor girl had to return to the village to face her fate. But the unrelenting girl refused to give up on her academic pursuit. She began to fetch water in the village to save for her education. From her savings, Ochanya enrolled herself in a private secondary school in the village. Assisted also by the proprietress of the school, Ochanya was able to completed her Junior Secondary School education after which she returned to Abuja to get a job to fend for herself.
“…I came back to Abuja to work. I found a job at Liberty Hotels in Kubuwa,” she recalled.
 At Liberty Hotels where Ochanya started working, she met one Mr. Emmanuel, a police officer working in SARS department, a meeting that turned Ochanya’s life sour again.
“He [Mr. Emmanuel] told me I was too young to work in the hotel but I told him I needed money to go (return) to school, and that was why I came here to work.”
But Mr. Emmanuel who posed to be a Good Samaritan persuaded her to stop working at the hotel. She yielded. He introduced her to a cousin of his named Ogechi and asked Ochanya to stay with her. The next day, Mr. Emmanuel bought a new phone for Ochanya for easy communication. He had promised taking Ochanya to a school where she would continue her education. He did take her to a school within the MOPOL Barrack there but later took her to his house within the Barrack where he had a carnal knowledge of the poor girl. Unhappy about the turn of event, Ochanya reported the incidence to Ogechi who then unfolded the truth:
“She said I should forget about him, that he did not [really] want to send me to school; that he just wanted to sleep with me…” She said.
After some time, Ochanya noticed she had become pregnant as a result of the rape. She ran some pregnancy test that showed positive. She reported to her uncle who still turned her down. Ejected, Ochanya began sleeping on the street with her pregnancy. In the course of these, Ochanya met a girl called Amarachi who introduced her to a baby factory in Aba in Imo State. Arriving in Aba, Ochanya was incarcerated in a room for three months with only food and water. She was barred from stepping out of the room until she was due for delivery.
After delivery, Ochanya was locked up in another room within the hospital for two days. A female nurse then opened the door, came in and took the baby from her and asked her to wait. The nurse later returned with the sum of One Hundred and Twenty Thousand naira (N120,000), gave it to her and asked her to leave.
“They gave me N120,000 and asked me to go and start something with my life, that the baby  would be fine; that I should forget about the baby.” She said.
On her return to the room where she was incarcerated earlier, Ochanya got a phone and called her uncle, Mr, Odan and narrated her ordeal. Uncle Odan advised her to return to Abuja and should not tamper with the money, that he would decide what action they would take when she returned. Naïve Ochanya was hopeful that her uncle would fight to help her regain the custody of her baby. But on returning to Abuja, against her expectation, Mr. Odan subjected her to brutal bartering and forcibly collected the money from her. Mr. Odan used the money to rent a new apartment where he moved in with his family. Ochanya was denied entry into the apartment as she returned to the street in search of survival at all cost.
It is eight months since the video went viral, yet it is still uncertain if any action has been taken to restore Ochanya and or rehabilitate her. Recent online comments show that the girl was seen on the street of Kubwa in Abuja dressed almost naked and begging arms. She is obviously suffering some mental damage.

Written by Oche Onu

Watch Video

https://youtu.be/oJwVWJOfIs8


Video Source: Odumeke O Wisdom