At just 12, the world of Queen (surname withheld) has literally turned upside down. Her dreams are crumbling as she undergoes medical treatment owing to alleged abuse by her father, Bamekpa.
Her injuries are serious enough to need urgent surgery in one of the hospitals in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
Queen is no doubt in pains. At a point, she bled profusely from her privates. Her dad, who hails from Imiringi in Ogbia area of Bayelsa State, allegedly started sleeping with her at the age of 11.
The wicked father was alleged to have serially r*ped and eventually impregnated her. Then he forced her to abort a four-month-old pregnancy through a crude process that currently threatens her life.
Queen told Operation Rescue (OPER), a human rights group, led by Princess Elizabeth Egbe, that she ran away from the house when she could no longer bear her father’s devilish craving.
She said: “There was nobody to help me. He kept doing it despite my efforts to stop him. It was a painful and violent experience. I ran away from home because there was a time I bled so much from my private part.”
She said: “When I became pregnant and he heard about it, he handed me over to a lady who took me through an unsuccessful process of abortion. I have been suffering series of health issues after the abortion.”
Speaking on the travails of his niece, her uncle, David Apigi, expressed shock at the way she was allegedly violated by her own father.
He said: “My niece told me the trauma she has been passing through in her father’s house and how her dad has been using her, turning her to his second wife.
“She said he had s*x with her to the extent that he aborted her four-month-old pregnancy. She ran to me and begged me not to allow her to return to her father’s house because she was tired. I decided to accommodate her. The father started looking for her without knowing she was with me.”
He said he reported the matter to the Kolo Police Station but asked them to hold on to enable him make some investigations. He said after his investigations, he called his cousin, Rex Ogboku, in Abuja who reported the matter to the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA).
But FIDA was sluggish in the way it handled the matter, Apigi noted. “My cousin, Rex Ogboku, in Abuja called FIDA to inform them about the situation. But the way FIDA was going about the issue was too sluggish for my liking. I decided to contact the Operation Rescue.
“We went back to the police and the Otuasiga Police Station arrested the man. The process through which the Otuasiga Police Station was handling the case was not satisfactory.