Pathetic story of how mother of four was raped under Lagos bridge for 13 years

I was digging through my archives when i came upon this story i wrote sometime in 2010 and i have decided to share it.
I urge residents of Lagos especially girls and women to be a bit more vigilant of their immediate surroundings and avoid walking through dark and deserted places at night. Read and learn.

PATHETIC!

Mother of four raped under Lagos bridge for 13 years & infected with HIV/AIDS dies

·       Good Samaritan framed for abduction, seeks redress

·        Drags Ministry of Youth Sports and Social Development, others to court

By Samod Biobaku

simplysamad@yahoo.com

Like most young women her, age, Rosemary had always wanted a home, a family and happiness above anything else.

Precisely13 years ago, she dreamt of having all these and perhaps even more but 13 years down the line, she got a family and a home but not the kind she always dreamt about.

Today, Rosemary has a permanent home at the Matori Cemetery and a family that consists of a husband living under the bridge; precisely in a canal, a daughter at an orphanage and other children whose whereabouts remain uncertain. To find out if she eventually found the happiness she sought, the story of how she was brutally raped by countless social miscreants for 13 years of her life, infected with the dreaded HIV/AIDS and eventually left to die should offer a vivid insight.

For Rosemary, when help came, it was apparently too late; in fact, so late that even the medical teams dispatched to treat her could only watch helplessly as the clock of her life came to a stand still.

Incredibly, Rosemary’s story also brings to the fore, the plight of a woman many would naturally regard a ‘Good Samaritan;’ a woman named Mrs. Garuba.

Interestingly, Mrs. Garuba also doubles as an Assistant Director in the Lagos State Civil Service as well as being a Headmistress at a primary school in Lagos.

Without any prior notice, fate interlocked her path with that of late Rosemary shortly before she (Rosemary) gave up the ghost. Like most people with fire in their bellies and compassion in their hearts, she did all she could to keep Rosemary alive after she found her but as earlier noted, it was already too late.

In a chat with Simply Samad, Mrs. Garuba narrates the heart-wrenching tale of how she found late Rosemary, tried to save her, eventually watched her die, met her husband (a Governor) after her death, reconciled him with Rosemary’s daughter at Little Saints Orphanage, framed, arrested, locked up and almost killed for allegedly abducting a child that was handed over to her by her dying mother, unfairly treated by some section of the media and so much more.

How it all began

Sometime in January 2008, one of my pupils; in Primary One precisely came to school in mufti while his mates were on the assembly ground. He was crying when I saw him and I moved close to him and asked him what the problem was. The pupil in question was about 7 years old at the time. I was shocked when he looked up to me and said: ‘My daddy died this morning. I expressed my condolence on the spot and asked him what exactly happened. He said: ‘My mummy said I should come and tell my teacher.’ I invited the teacher (who is also late now) and told her what happened. We decided that it would be wrong to allow the boy (pupil) return home alone and decided to follow him home. His class teacher and I followed him and he told us that he lives in Opebi so we decided to take a bus to Opebi. When we got to Opebi, he told us that his house was after the bridge (the link bridge between Opebi and Sheraton Hotel in Ikeja). When we crossed the bridge, we asked him where his house was and he pointed at the canal and forest under the bridge. We followed him and we were shocked to discover that people were actually living under the bridge. We found about 400 inhabitants there. We also saw the corpse of the pupil’s father there as well. Sympathisers were still gathered around. After we saw the condition and prayed for the widow, we decided on our own to go back and raise some money because we realized that they were living in abject poverty. They didn’t even have enough food for the little children that were lying all around. In went back to school to intimate my head teacher and some other teachers. We raised some money and went back to give it to the family of the bereaved so that they could use it to take care of themselves before the end of the burial It was when we were on our way back that morning that I discovered about 45 school-aged children were in that shanty without going ton school during school hours. I interviewed some of the parents and asked them why they did not enroll their wards in government schools. I let them realize the fact that the fact that they were poor does not mean they should not allow their children go to school. I made them see the fact that education would liberate them. That day, I registered about 45 children.

Mrs. Garuba meets Rosemary

On our way out, I still saw a lot of other children under the bridge and we decided to go down to see if we could get some other children to register in the school since it was a government school. It was after we started going there for evangelism that we discovered another shanty called ‘Animal Kingdom.’ The place is over 50 years old and has been excavated before Lagos was developed. There, we discovered about 1, 000 inhabitants. That day, as we entered under the bridge, we discovered mud and make-shift houses; built with mud, planks and a few iron sheets. I saw a lot of children. I was very curious and in the first room I entered, I saw a woman who later identified herself as Rosemary James. She was in a very pathetic situation and had an 8-month-old daughter by her side. Immediately I saw her, I ran back because I thought she was a mad woman. As I was running away, she called me back and said: ‘Madam! I no mad. I dey sick. Please help me.’ I was moved by her comment, went close to her and asked her what was wrong with her. She said: ‘Na one kain disease like this and the doctor say I go soon die.’ The teacher and I gave her some money and as we were about leaving the place, she called me back and said: ‘Madam! I know say I go soon die. Please carry this child. God will give you the grace to take care of this child.’ I started weeping and told her I could not carry the child immediately. I told her that I would have to go. Some of the other people that we discovered there include one ‘Brother Peter,’ ‘Mama Blessing’ and some other people.

She decides to help

I called my husband and discussed the issue with him on phone. I remember that it was while speaking with Rosemary that I discovered that she was a widow. And incidentally, I run a widow-based ministry, for the fatherless as well as those who are very poor. The name of my ministry is ‘Jesus Cares Widows Ministry International.’ It is registered with CAC in Abuja. I started it about 8 years ago. I’ve been a widow myself so I know what it means to be a widow so God gave me the grace to take care of them the same way he took care of me. I lost my husband January 19, 2000 and I remarried 5 years after to my current husband. I have partners in the ministry and together with my husband, we were able to take Rosemary to the ospital and foot the bill of her treatment at Adefemi Hospital at Seriki Aro under the directorship of Dr. Olushola Taiwo. My husband, I and some other missionaries chartered a vehicle which we used in conveying the woman to the hospital. My husband was of tremendous help because the woman could not get up by herself. My husband carried her from under the bridge all the way to the top of the bridge and put her in the taxi. We rushed her and the child to the hospital but unfortunately, she passed on about a week after. At the hospital, it was discovered that she had full blown HIV/AIDS and had been without food for almost 3 months. I remember that when we saw her, she had fungi infections and mucor all over her body because she had been in the same position for almost three months. When she passed on, went back to the bridge to meet some of the inhabitants because we wanted to find out if we could locate any of Rosemary’s relative. That was when we discovered that Rosemary had been living under the bridge for 13 years and had four children under that bridge. She came there with a pregnancy, was married to the governor of the place and bore him two children. When the governor died around 2002/2003, people began to rape her there. She narrated how the new governor began to rape her there until she became pregnant with her last child. We had planned to get her an apartment after her recovery. Unfortunately, she didn’t make it. All attempts to reach her family proved abortive and we reported the case at Area F Police Station in Ikeja. The police told us to look for her family. When we couldn’t get them, we reported back at the police station and we were told to get the necessary papers required for her burial. We got all death including the death certificate and eventually buried her at the Matori Cemetery. She was buried mid February 2008.

Rosemary’s child

After her death, the care of her child became a problem. She had asked me to take the child but we had earlier hoped that she would sail through and continue taking care of her child. I was at a cross on what to do because my last child is in the university. I was weeping at the hospital until the director advised me to take the baby to Little Saints Orphanage if I couldn’t take care of her. I did as told and took the baby there. At the orphanage, they asked me a lot of questions about the baby and I gave them all the information I had about the baby. Eventually, they went to Adekunle Police Station in Lagos to collect an extract. Since then, I’ve been going to Little Saints to visit the baby, take her pictures and see how well she was faring. We also made up our mind that because of the pathetic situation under that bridge, we would be going to the shanty every Saturday to minister to them and we’ve been doing that since 2008. We tell them about the word of God, give them mediations as well as some provisions. Sometimes, we even go there with a medical team. Little Saints also assigned a missionary in person of Dickeness Bola Ajisafe to follow us in case there’s any other child that needs to be rehabilitated. Little Saints promised to take care of such children for the parents. That was how we began to go there until sometime towards the end of 2008. A journalist we met one day while we were ministering under the bridge wanted to take our picture and we confronted him to know why he wanted to take our picture. We asked him to identify himself and he said he works with Prodege magazine. We told him we had never heard of any such magazine and he said the magazine used to be in Lagos. I made him realize that I had been in Lagos for the past 30 years and have never heard of any such magazine. That was when I knew the man was fake. Later on, he began begging us and revealed that he had been monitoring the late Rosemary. He said he was interested in me since I was the one who tried to help her. I told him that we saw a woman on the brink of death and we tried to save her because that was the area God called us. We didn’t allow him take our photograph that day. We however noticed that the man kept coming under the bridge every Saturday like we did. When we are ministering to the inhabitants of the shanty, he would sit with them and listen to the word of God. After a while, he gave his life to Christ. At a point, my husband asked him why he hadn’t given his life since he said he used to attend the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG). He said before he met us, he was only a church-goer. He started begging me to grant him an interview because he was running a documentary on HIV/AIDS patients. He said what I did by taking the late Rosemary to the hospital was not my responsibility but that of the government since they collect subventions from international bodies. He lamented how the government neglected HIV/AIDS victims. I asked him what his own interest was and told him that everyone had a responsibility to save lives irrespective of whether the government does it or not. I got furious when I discovered that he had been recording and taking pictures of Rosemary on a daily basis for over six months before she died. He had been covering her even when Rosemary was still going about begging. I told him that if I had seen Rosemary six months earlier, she would still be alive today. I got angry and and told him I didn’t want to talk to him again. I told him I was disappointed in his callous and self-centred nature because rather than saving a life, all he was concerned about was a documentary. He could have saved Rosemary if he wanted to but he chose to watch her die. He said he normally does packages like that and sell them to foreign press so that they will begin to petition Nigeria and unveil the fact that Nigeria has not been utilizing the subvention it gets for HIV/AIDS on what it should. I told him he was trying to destroy the name of the country. He laughed and said: ‘Is Nigeria taking care of anybody?’ He told me I was not supposed to be spending my money on HIV/AIDS victims and I told him I was not interested in that. God called me and this same God knows Nigeria has a government yet he called me to help these people. At the end of the day, I told him I would not grant him the interview.

Thereafter, he began to persuade me and when I wasn’t yielding, he shifted to my husband and remained very adamant on getting an interview from me. One day, our car had a mechanical fault and h offered to give us a ride home. I refused his offer but after mush persistence, my husband yielded. That was how he knew where we lived. Since then, he became friendly hoping that after getting friendly with us, I would grant him the interview. He was so persistent that one day, my husband told me to grant him the interview so that he would leave me alone in peace. I told my husband that I could not grant the interview unless I prayed about it. I don’t grant interviews until I get clearance from God. That day, I went inside to pray. As I was praying, the Holy Spirit told me to go outside. When I got outside, I did not meet the man. I asked my husband where the man was and he said he got an urgent call from the office to report immediately and had to dash off. I told my husband that God does not want me to grant Yinkaola Willaims any interview. That was the last day we saw him.

How trouble started

I did not hear from him for the rest of 2008 until 2009 when he started sending threat sms to me. In the message, he would say that very soon, he would come to meet me and I would have to explain some of the runs I did under the bridge. I was surprised at these messages. I recall that at a point, he sold a part of the documentary to the foreign media and the Lagos State government got wind of it and sent KAI to demolish everything under the bridge where we had found Rosemary. They bulldozed all their make-shift houses, arrested a lot of them and locked them up in different prisons. We went there to explain to them that these people are suffering and do not deserve to be treated like criminals. Rather than help them, they just sentenced them to various terms of imprisonment ranging from 3 months to 6 months. We are talking about people who have wives and children and live under a bridge because they have nowhere else to go. I pleaded on their behalf but they refused. They eventually released the women and children but kept the men in jail. After demolishing the shanty under the bridge, they put a gate and a padlock there to prevent the inhabitants from moving in again. They even put security there on a 24 hour basis but some of the inhabitants are still hanging around there because many of them don’t have places to go. They don’t have money to rent houses. As such, we couldn’t continue with ministry except with a few of the inhabitants that we had earlier. One of them was Peter Adamu - He is a cleaner at Fashakin Foods in Anthony. We still go and see them because they are still poor. His wife had a fire accident while they were still under the bridge so we still support them with food, money, provisions and prayers.

The case of Little Esther Oluwabunmi

I began to take care of Rosemary’s baby, Esther Oluwabunmi. I gave her that name because I couldn’t ask her mother for her name because of the pathetic situation she was in. Her mother was always stooling and urinating without control and it was her condition that made me know that there is pampers for adults. After her death, I prayed to God and God said I should name her Esther Oluwabunmi and that she’s going to become a very important person in the nearest future. After one year in Little Saints, i was summoned by Little Saints and she asked after the other children that Rosemary had before she died. She said I should help her trace the other children who were in other orphanages because she wanted them to be together. However, because of my work as a teacher and the time I dedicate to my ministry, I have not had the time to go and look for them.

When we still used to go under the bridge, the governor (Yinka Adeoye) who fathered Esther began to ask after Esther. At a point, I asked him why he was always asking me about the child and that was when he revealed to me that he was the girl’s father. He told me how he impregnated Rosemary after her former husband died. He asked me where the child was and I told him that she was in Little Saints. He was displeased to know that his daughter was in Little Saints and reminded me that Esther’s mother had handed to child over to me because she wanted me to take care of her. He said he wanted the child to be with me. It was around this time that Little Saints told me that they had been with Esther for almost two years and that if we couldn’t find her family, they would have to adopt the child. So, I told them that I had found Esther’s father under the bridge and I noted that they had a close resemblance. We realized that Esther’ father would not be able to take care of her and Little Saints suggested that the Esther’s father should come forward, claim the child and had her over to me by himself in the presence of the police. She told me that it was called reconciliation and that she has been running the orphanage for 16 years. She told me to produce Governor and I did as told. I explained the situation to him and he was okay with it. He said he believed that if the child was withme, he could always have access to her.

Reconciliation

On August 11, 2009, we went to Little Saints and in the presence of the police from Adeniji Adele, the child was reconciled with Yinka Adeoye (Governor), he handed the child over to me and we left the place. All the papers were signed and I have other documents. The child was growing very fast. Initially, the girl was very sick and I had to verify if she was HIV positive because her mother had her when she was HIV positive. After several tests, we discovered she was not HIV positive. We treated her and after some time, she became okay. She’s now a beautiful girl and I enrolled her in school.

Arrested

On August 28, 2010, a boy that was living with me came in and told me that there were some people outside looking for me. He said they were from the Lagos State Government. Since I work with the Lagos State Government, I assumed it was a message from work. By the time I came out, I was surprised because I met not less than 60 fully armed policemen in uniform and over 30 others from the Ministry of Youth Sports and Social Development led by their Permanent Secretary, Kamor Junaid, Mrs. Latinwo and others. Before I knew it, the police rushed into my room and began searching everywhere. I asked them to identify themselves but they refused. They said they were looking for Queen and I said I didn’t know any queen. They said they were referring to the one I picked under the bridge. I told them that her name was Rosemary and not Queen and they said I should produce the child. The baby was sleeping but I had to wake her up and immediately I brought her out, they pounced on her and snatched her from my grasp. They asked me where the other children were. I told them I didn’t know what they were talking about. When they said they wanted to search the house, I asked if they had a search warrant but they just pushed me aside and began searching the whole house. They came along with about 30 press men from various media houses. They kept taking pictures and recording everything without a warrant. After doing all that, they handcuffed the boy who was with me and accused him of lying to them about the fact that my husband was not at home. I let them realise that the boy had gone to bed before my husband arrived home the previous night and that there was no way he would have known that he was at home. My husband had gone to minister in Abeokuta, their vehicle broke down on his way back to Lagos and he arrived very late at night.

Taken to Alausa and locked up

With the handcuffs, they carried us in one of the three buses and two lorries of policemen that they came with. They led me straight to their office in Alausa. After some time, they led me to Little Saints to go and arrest her too. Just like they did in my house, they equally ransacked her place and took some documents. After arresting Little Saints, they arranged a press conference and kangaroo trial. The Permanent Secretary acted as the judge and he said we were criminals and that he had decided to parade us before the press. The police were the prosecutors. The said I should say I’m guilty but I refused. I was kept in the condition without food or bath for 24 hours

Interrogation

At the end of the day, they handed us over to the police for interrogation and they interrogated us under duress. When they asked me about what I don’t know about, I tell them I don’t know anything about it. They accused me of being in possession of Rosemary’s other children but I explained to them that Rosemary gave Esther to me by herself. They said I should write in my statement that in know the children and have them. I told them I couldn’t and later, they said they were going to lock me up because I was not cooperating. They told my husband that I was not cooperating with them but how could I plead guilty to an offense I know nothing about? My husband made me realize that God would vindicate us and told me to write whatever it is they wanted me to write. At the end of the day, they demanded a N100, 000 bail. Our lawyers came but they were denied bail. I told them I couldn’t raise that kind of money and that was how I was locked up in their cell from Saturday till Monday evening. On Monday morning, they came, put me in a bus with a lorry load of police again and led me to Matori Cemetery where Rosemary was buried and I identified the grave. When they saw the lapses in the work of the Lagos State Government because they don’t have a documentary of corpses buried in the cemetery, they claimed they were contracting the burials out to people; once a contractor is leaving, he leaves with all the documents. When they noticed I was telling them the truth, they took me back to the cell. I was detained in the task force police station in Alausa. I was there without food, bath or trial for three days until some human right lawyers came and protested that if I was not released on Monday, they would go to court on Tuesday. Around 9:30pm, they released me. That was on Monday night; after detaining me for three days.

Putting the cart before the horse

It was after arrest and detention that they began their investigation and when they investigated, they discovered that everything Yinkaola Willaims told them was a lie. He was behind everything. He brought the same Governor who had been tormenting that Esther was his daughter to come and tell the press that he is not the biological father of Esther. He even told the press that I promised to give him N150, 000 to come and claim to be the father of Esther. He said I gave him N10, 000 out of the money and failed to balance him and that was why he got angry with me and decided to squeal.

There was another man, Akin who God used to me to help get him a job was also paid by Yinkaola Willaims to give a false testimony.

Vindicated

Investigation of the police eventually revealed that it was all a frame-up. Other people who witnessed everything when it happened also came out. For instance, we were able to trace Peter Adamu and one Seyi who came out and tell the truth. I thank God. I was eventually released and they told me to be reporting there, which I did. The Investigating Police Offficer told me that with all their findings, they discovered that all the allegations were a frame-up.

Almost killed

When I was in the cell but outside the task force office, there were some policemen hanging around and my daughter was there with one of my sisters. One of the policemen who came to arrest me began discussing with one of his colleagues.

Officer A: ‘Ah! One big woman dey dat cell o. If you see the house wey the woman get, you go think say na London the house dey.’ Officer B: ‘Wetin the woman do sef?’ Officer A: ‘I no know o. They just call us for Governor’s office say make we go arrest the woman.’ Officer B: ‘Ehen! All these big women for Lagos; dem be criminals.’ Officer A: ‘Make she thank God say I no dey duty. If to say I dey night, I for waste am. Make the woman dey there tomorrow when I go dey night, I go waste am.’

Immediately they left, my daughter began to cry and told my husband what she had just overheard. Before then, I was insisting that it was my lawyers that would bail me. I told the policemen that bail is free and they said I would rot in the cell. My daughter also heard that the officer who wanted to waste me might be on night duty the following day. That was when I realized that they kill people; they open the cell at night, bring out a suspect whose lawyers might frustrate them in court and shoot the person that same night. That was when I gave my husband the permission to go and raise the money.

Yinkaola Williams resorts to blackmail

He went to Peter Adamu’s house in Agege and offered him money to implicate me. He told Peter that he was going to pay him to tell the police that I had custody of the other children. Thank God Peter objected to his plans and reminded Yinkaola that we had done so much for him in the past and did niot deserve this manner of betrayal. He told him he could not tell lies against us. He told us that Yinkaola came to him three times and that he would have called me but he didn’t have my phone number. When I told the police what happened, they went to cross check. Peter Adamu confirmed the story. They discovered I was framed up and decided to leave me alone. I called my lawyer to write to the media houses that ran the one-sided story without bothering to hear from me when they had fictitious allegations. I am an Assistant Director; a level 15 officer. I have served Lagos State for 30 years. So, if at this stage, I go into those bad things, it is very bad. I am a minister of God. They have spoilt my name and they need to retract all they have published and broadcast. They also need to write a written apology to me and compensate me. We wrote to them and gave them 14 days. After 14 days, they didn’t respond and that is why we are going to court.

Baby Esther taken away

She was taken to a juvenile home in Idi Araba and people who have seen her said she’s not getting the kind of care she used to get before she was taken away. What I wanted to do was to help but they have turned it against me so I leave everything to them and God. Whatever they want to do with the child, they can go ahead. After all, I have my own biological children. I try to help others because God called me.

Mrs. Garuba takes Lagos State to court

Yinkaola Williams

According to the investigating officers, they said they discovered that the allegations against me were false. They said if there’s anybody they need to arrest and prosecute, it’s Yinkaola Williams for giving them false information. The ministry covered him and said he was their informant. I never knew his house but he knew mine. Since I knew him, he has changed his telephone line more than 20 times and I found that very suspicious. He always told me that he loses his phones and I told him in found that very skeptical.