Teenage house girl Raped by Lebanese boss and sacked afterwards.

This is a tale of woe, of how a 17-year-old girl,
Roda Timothy, who left her home in Plateau
state for Lagos, last year, in search of greener
pastures, was raped by a Lebanese man and
how Nigerian authorities failed to give her
justice.

According to Vanguard, Roda was employed as a

maid by the Lebanese man, named Hussein, in
Lagos.

Hussein, who is alleged to have raped and
impregnated her, later threw her out of his house
after several attempts to abort the pregnancy
failed.

The Lebanese resides in Allen Avenue, Ikeja and
works as a chef for upscale companies in Lagos.

The poor girl, who spoke to Vanguard on the
condition of that her picture won’t be taken,
stated that: “I started working with the man as a
maid immediately I came to Lagos. He agreed to
pay me N10,000 monthly as my salary. When I
packed into the house, my boss was not around
but he came back two days later from his work
place.”

“On this particular day, my boss was about to
leave the house when his brother asked me to go
and meet him and collect some money to
purchase food items for the house.”

“I knocked on his door, he answered and asked
me to come inside. When I entered, I told him
that his brother asked me to collect money to
purchase food items. He said okay and got up
from where he was sitting, and pretended as if
he wanted to get the money before he grabbed
me forcefully. I struggled with him and was
shouting but he over powered me and raped me.”

“The following month when I discovered that I
had missed my monthly circle, I informed him
about it but instead of finding solution to it, he
raped me a second time. I then kept disturbing
him about the growing pregnancy. What he did
was to send me to a nearby chemist with a
prescription but the attendant refused to attend
to me without his presence.”

“He later went with me and bought some drugs
which he asked me to take to abort the
pregnancy. I took the drugs but nothing
happened. After some days, he bought another
set of drugs which I took, yet, nothing
happened.”

“I then became very worried and was disturbing
him to find a solution to the problem he caused.
That was when he started threatening me and
later sacked me after paying me N19,000.”

“I was so afraid that when I went back to my
brother who brought me to Lagos, I didn’t tell
him that I was pregnant for my boss. I was just
praying that the pregnancy will just disappear
but it did not. Unknown to my brother that I was
pregnant, he got me another job where I worked
for four months as a maid before my new
employer discovered that I was pregnant and
told my brother.”

The teenage girl’s brother, Joshua, told Vanguard
how the Nigerian authorities failed to give justice
to his sister.

In his words: “It was January this year that we
discovered she was pregnant. Her stomach was
still flat and we had to take her for scan.”

“It was then she revealed that her former boss,
Hussein, was responsible for her pregnancy. So,
we went to Hussein’s house to confront him but
he denied being responsible for the pregnancy.

We therefore reported the case to the
Immigration Department in Ikeja and on February
9, 2016, he was arrested but was later released.”
“From immigration department, my sister was
taken to the National Agency For The Prohibition
of Trafficking in Persons, NAPTIP. Initially,
officials of NAPTIP said she would be with them
until she delivers but last week, officials of the
agency came and asked me to come and take
my sister back as she will soon deliver.”

“The pressure and threats from NAPTIP became
too much to the extent that I don’t know
whether they are protecting the interest of my
sister who was abused by a foreigner or that of
the foreigner.”

On his part, Hussein, who spoke through his
cousin, acknowledged the pregnancy, saying that
whatever happened between him and Roda was
a mistake and that he would take care of Roda
and the child after a DNA test.

NAPTIP is yet to comment on the case.