Lamentation of a kid mother: At 15, I just gave birth to a rapist’s baby — Khadijat, homeless teenager at LUTH
By Funmi Ajumobi
Khadijat (not real name) is a mother at 15 after a pregnancy that resulted from sexual assault. The teenager gave birth at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LUTH.
But her case is already getting attention of NGOs, Lagos and federal government agencies especially in tracing her assailant and making him face justice, but her immediate needs and those of her baby are a priority. Khadijat seems familiar to everyone in the hospital as everyone that passes greets her. She tells Sunday Vanguard her story.
Story
“I was forced to come to Lagos from my village, Iyemgbe in Cotonou, to be a housemaid in Nigeria”, she started.
“When I came I was just crying because I didn’t understand any Nigerian language and my bosses always beat me.
“I cannot remember my age when I came to Nigeria but I know that I had not developed breasts then. I was 15 years old last year.
“After working in and out of three places, the woman who brought me to Nigeria took me to another family close to her shop.
“My last boss was selling cow skin popularly known as ponmo but it smelled awfully so much so that I threw up every time and that was why I had to run away from the place.
“After I ran away, a woman helped me at Mushin. She was a heavy drinker and I cannot really say whether she purposely left me alone while I was sleeping or drunk on that day I was raped.
“On that day I had to sleep because of tiredness after working for her from morning till night.
“I slept on a bench near her umbrella shop.
“As she was always doing, she had sent me to go and meet men to collect money for her and, after that, I slept on the bench to relax and I didn’t know when she left because she didn’t wake me up to follow her home.
“When I was woken up, I saw a figure who held my neck and I was struggling with him but he overpowered me and raped me.
“After that, he threatened me. I had seen his face before but I don’t know his house.
“I was just crying that night because I was bleeding.
Despite my ordeal, no regret for my actions – Man whose viral video sparked #EndSARS protests“She doesn’t give me money. I sell sachet water and beg for money for her and whenever I come back, she would give me N70 to eat”, she narrated.
“When I became pregnant, I didn’t know. It was our neighbor who noticed; she bought something and dipped it in my urine and she told me I was pregnant.
“I begged her not to tell my madam and she agreed because she too knew that my madam will send me away.
“My madam later sent me to her senior sister to work for her for two months.
“It was when I returned that she discovered I was pregnant.
“She took me to a doctor to abort the pregnancy but the doctor refused on the grounds that I was too young.
“But following my madam’s threat to send me away, the doctor told her to leave me in the hospital until I give birth and that the hospital will take care of me.
“I was there until I started labour from 9am till night and I couldn’t deliver.
“That was how the doctor referred me to LUTH and, when I got here, I was delivered of my baby without caesarean section”.
On her future plans, she said, “I want to learn hairdressing because I know how to plait hair but I am not perfect in it”.
On going back to Cotonou, she stated, “I wish to go back to my country but I am not sure my daddy will accept me back with a child.
“And it was because he couldn’t take care of me that he sent me out as house help in the first place.
“My mother is dead; I am the family’s first born but my father has another wife now.
“I would prefer to stay in Nigeria because I don’t even think I have any life to live there (Cotonou).
“Here too, I can’t stay with my madam again and I am too small to stay alone.
“If I can find a place to stay where I will not be the only one, I will like it but I don’t want to stay with my madam again”.
