June 23, disaster struck in
the Ayobo area of Lagos, after Emeka Agu, 28, allegedly set his pregnant
girlfriend, Miss Bidemi Akinsolufe ablaze. His reason for doing that - To
prevent the lady from charming other men with her beauty.
According to Bidemi:
I started dating Emeka last year but
my boyfriend is very jealous. Even whenever my sister called me, he would want
to call back to be sure it wasn’t a man that called me.
He was working before and had his
own place but he later lost his job and had no place to stay.
I secured a mini-flat in Ayetoro and asked him to join me there.
We had been living together since
then. Recently, when I took in, he asked me to stop
working and I did. But he drinks a
lot. He spends his money on alcohol and I always told him that I was worried
that his liver might be destroyed. He doesn’t trust me; he thinks I date other
men.
He used to work in the night as a
bouncer in a hotel. The day before he set me on fire, his former boss had
summoned him and I thought maybe the man wanted to offer him a job. So, on the
morning of that day, Sunday, June 23, I called him to know if he had gone to
the man’s place.
As we were speaking on the phone, he
told me he was already high. And I asked him why he should spend his money on
alcohol when I was hungry at home.
I was angry, so I went to report him
to his friend. His friend then called him and talked some sense into him. But
when he knew that I was with his friend, he became angry and accused his friend
of sleeping with me. He said he would suck my blood for sleeping with his
friend.
I was even explaining to him that I
couldn’t be sleeping around with my pregnancy but he wasn’t convinced. He began
to call me names, that I was a useless woman. He later said it was all right, that
he wasn’t angry again.
So, I went back home. “When I got
back home, one of my friends told me that Emeka had reported me to her, saying
I locked him outside in the rain. So, when I got to our apartment, I begged him
and my friend also begged him. He said he was no longer angry but I didn’t know
he still had plans to deal with me.
After a while, he pretended as if he
wanted to go to the toilet and while walking past me, he suddenly gave me a
terrible slap. Then he began to beat me. In fact, I had never been so
thoroughly beaten since I was born.
He had only slapped me on two
earlier occasions. That night, I was yelling for help but I guessed people
weren’t hearing me outside. I was crying and threatening to pack out of the
apartment. Then he said he would destroy my beauty. But I didn’t believe he
would do anything so devilish.
Then he went to the kitchen, brought
out the stove and poured the kerosene on me. He lit a match and threw it at me
and I was burning. I rushed to the kitchen to get water but he was pushing the
buckets of water away. I was yelling and crying.
Then after some time, he began to
say to me: ‘My babe, your face is burnt, I’m sorry.’ “I didn’t even know that
my face was badly burnt. I initially thought my hands were the only parts
affected until much later when I saw my face in the mirror.
When he realised the damage he had
done, he began to beg me, saying he would marry me. He said I should stay
inside, that he would go and get raw pap to apply on the burnt parts of my body.
But as he wanted to go out of the apartment, I followed him. He said he wasn’t
running away, that he just wanted to get the pap and get back. And I said okay,
but I was following him.
He kept pushing me back but I
insisted on following him out. Later, one of our neighbours, a man, knocked on
our door and asked what was wrong with me. He replied that there was no problem
but I shouted that the man should come in to save my life.
I told the man that the door wasn’t
locked, that he should push it. Eventually other neighbours came and pushed the
door open and I immediately ran outside so that everyone could see me. I think
that was when I passed out.
After she lost consciousness, some of her neighbours quickly rushed her to the nearest hospital from where she was transferred to the Gbagada General Hospital.
Meanwhile, the neighbours also alerted the police in Ayobo, who came to arrest Emeka.
Bidemi also told the reporter:
He told me it was the devil’s
handiwork but I know God would repay him. I leave everything to God. I have
been hospitalised here now since then, and my people have been spending money
on me.
Initially, I thought no man would
want me any longer since he had destroyed my face. But my people said no, that
they wouldn’t allow me near him again.
They said he should write an
undertaking that he wouldn’t come after me but I’ve been told that, even with
an undertaking, he might still try to harm me. I will have the baby but he must
never ask for my child. I want him to face the music. I want justice to be
done.
Bidemi’s mother, Mrs. Nike Adeyemi, also spoke with the reporter. Said she:
Some good neighbours took my
daughter to a nearby hospital and asked her boyfriend to stay with her there.
They then secretly invited policemen to arrest him. We are already in court.”
“I have spent all I have to treat my daughter.
None of Emeka’s people has paid a
dime out of the heavy hospital bills. We have spent over N200, 000 now and we
are still spending. The doctor said we would need, at least, N500, 000 for
comprehensive treatment for my daughter because her face and hands have been
badly burnt.
You can see the wounds are still
looking fresh even after over three weeks. I don’t even have any money for her
treatment any more.
I’m so fed up. One of Emeka’s
sisters came to me with policemen from Ikoyi. She offered to pay me N40, 000 so
that the boy would be released. I refused to collect the money because I said
it was even an insult for her to offer that little amount when we were being
asked to bring N500, 000.
I don’t even know where to turn to
for help. Please, help me beg compassionate Nigerians to come to our aid. I
don’t want my daughter to die. I think we will also have to do something about her
pregnancy because I don’t ever want her to have anything to do with that boy
any longer.”
The reporter spoke with Emeka’s sister, who allegedly offered N40, 000 to Bidemi’s family. Her words:
“I don’t know what to do again. I
didn’t know when Emeka and Bidemi started their friendship.I didn’t send him to
set the girl ablaze. I’m even tired of everything. I am a widow myself and I
don’t have money.
I have even used the N40, 000 that I
offered her to take care of some other issues. I’m tired of the whole issue and
I don’t know what to do.”
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