Onyinye before and after the acid attack
Onyinye Blessing Agu is a lovely pretty lady. By all standards, the slim fair-skinned lady is a piece of work the Almighty made in fine definitions. God withheld just a little raw material that stopped her from coming as a perfect piece of beautiful product. With her fragile frame and elegant physique, a man naturally should adore rather than undo her. But that was not the case with a man who acted the brute with her on a fateful day.Onyinye served Nigeria till June this year. And during the service when she worked in the Badagry West LCDA in Lagos State, a boyfriend called like best of friends to inform that he would come over to see how she was faring.
She thought it would just be the usual visit of a friend though they had somehow fallen apart, possibly to make up.
The corper was terribly mistaken as her ex had another plan altogether, and that was sinister and sickening. She unsuspectingly received him at her office in Kankon Badagry at the council head office, and later had to see him off.
This man, Ifeanyi Collins Ude, Onyinye’s friend by all standards, had an evil in his kitty, and his friend never knew of that. The two grew up in Enugu, and had been together as close allies all their younger days until December last year when Onyinye, after embracing a different lifestyle decided to call it quits with the relationship.
“I had given my life to Christ, and decided to live a new life. One of the resolves I had was to quit my relationship with Ifeanyi although we had made promises to marry. For the benefit of the doubt, I explained my new position to him and politely asked to opt out of the relationship. In all honesty, the marriage was still at the intention stage. Nothing had been made formal, neither had he approached my family to formalise the affair. So at that point, I knew I had no obligation customarily to stick to him when I felt I needed a new life. And to make it easier for both of us, I gave him the leeway of toeing my new lifestyle in Christ, an option he turned down. Instead, he raved and threatened my life. But because we had been friends for long, I never took his threats seriously.”
Onyinye and Ifeanyi come from the same Enugu State. The lady is from Udi whereas Ifeanyi is a native of Ozalla in Nkanu LGA and resides at No. 21 Kenneth Road, Awkananaw, Enugu as at the last time Onyinye visited his place last. Ifeanyi is a foodstuffs dealer in the Kenyatta Market in Enugu.
On February 20, Monday, Onyinye saw her ex-boyfriend in a colour she never knew. But she gave hint of an inkling of what Ifeanyi did. According to her tale, the man had been in the habit of flying off the handle at a slight provocation. “In the years we dated, he once in a while beat me, threw punches and even in public places. On one occasion he punched me in his shop,” she narrated. While they strolled out of the council premises, she least suspected Ifeanyi had a vial of raw and caustic acid in his bag. While they stood by the roadside waiting for a vehicle to take Ifeanyi, he instead insisted he preferred okada (bike) to a cab. Later, after the incident, she found out Ifeanyi’s insistence on okada was to afford him the latitude to throw acid in her face and zoom off.
This intention could not materialize, but the man still had his way to a large extent. As he stepped across the road to leave, Onyinye got a burning splash in her face. As it seared through her skin, it dissolved her wears and etched on her skin terrible acid burn that left her in pains.
While she raised the alarm after the splash, Ifeanyi dashed across the road and vanished before a mob could reach him. That was about 2.00pm. But his escape was temporary as the police later picked him out of the bush where he hid at 8.00pm same day. Possibly, he had made attempt to cross the border and escape into Benin Republic out of the reach of the law. He could not make it fast as the Seme police later brought him to Panti, Yaba for detention and investigation.
At this time, Onyinye was already a guest of the Hakeem Clinic in Badagry from where she was taken to the Military Hospital Yaba. Between February 22 and April 18, she lived in her pains in the hospital ward till her discharge. The hospital’s discharge certificate, in fact the first Onyinye got before the NYSC discharge was issued on May 9.
But she could be counted among the luckiest ladies who passed through the ravenous hands of jealous and callous men who deploy acid to settle lost love scores. From the right side of her neck to the right hand and down to the upper end of her right breast were affected. Today, the wounds have healed, the scar turned deep brown, making bold patches on her glowing brown skin. The neck region is partly glued with a little untanned patch where the wound has not healed completely. But lucky as she is, she adorns almost constantly a hairdo that cascades over her entire neck to hide the bold scar from embarrassing observers.
Seeing Onyinye in our office and comparing her looks with the pictures she came with, you certainly know that she is weighed down terribly. The acid spared her face and sight, but her mind was got at. She is unsettled and intermittently, her eyes moisten as she tells her story. She is shaken no doubt, and Onyinye needs quick fix to mend her mind first and later her frame.
Midway into her tale, she sobbed as her eyes turned red and misty, preparatory to rain down tears. She had to comport herself and finish her story.
Right now, Onyinye lives with some number of pains over the incident. Apart from the assistance the council chairman rendered to pick her bill at the hospital in Badagry, Onyinye is just on her own. Her hospital bill at Yaba – over N150,000 was settled by the family. The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) had promised to pick the bill, but sometime after her discharge, the body she served Nigeria on its platform reneged on this assistance and said the bill should be the headache of the man that maimed her.
The major complaint she has is her loss of confidence in the police, which she believes did a shoddy job of Ifeanyi’s arrest by releasing him after his initial appearance at the Oyingbo Chief Magistrate’s Court (Court 12) in April. At his first arraignment, Onyinye was still in hospital. But on May 20, July 13 and 15, the subsequent adjourned dates she was at the court and saw Ifeanyi brought in to face prosecution. “He saw me on those days. On May 20, he was brought by the police. But after that they released him. So on those days of appearance in July he came on his own, but never behaved like he saw me. He has never shown any remorse, and rather exhibited his defiance to my uncle who he picked quarrels with at the court premises.
“In those days in court, the matter was never heard. We just left with a new date on October 12. After the last day in court, the NYSC lawyer who had been assisting me called to say that the police released Ifeanyi on grounds that we would settle out of court and find ways of making up. But till date, neither Ifeanyi nor his family ever made any peace move to me or my family. I reliably gathered that he is back in Enugu walking free and doing his business. In fact, to compound my problem, he has called me some number of times. He still threatens me with more attacks unless I marry him. I had refused to pick his calls until the lawyer encouraged me to hear him out. But as he asks me how I am, the next would be a return to the usual threat, and on one of such calls, he told me he is happy I feel the pains of the acid burn as he feels the pains of my leaving him,” Onyinye alleged.
I have a lot of pains and burdens on my body and mind now. One of the pains is that while I was serving the nation, I had this problem and the NYSC did nothing to make sure the assailant was prosecuted. I have got no justice up till now. I am fed up with the judicial system that has not tried Ifeanyi till date or the police that released him to go free. I doubt the possibility of making him come back to Lagos for the trial.” On seeing her now, she is like at 50 percent depreciation from the elegant figure you see in this picture she took at the NYSC camp. The acid really got at her personality, far deeper than the skin.
Onyinye still remains on medication till date. When she was newly discharged from hospital, she used to take an injection once a week that costs N1,400 a dose. Now it’s a monthly affair at the same cost, in addition to antibiotics, analgesics, anti-histimines and a cream that helps to flatten the thick scalds. The injection is what stops further growth.
“I have to tell you that I have another major concern apart from the denial of justice. I am afraid I could be a victim of discrimination by employers who might distance me because of the ugly scalds on me, and what about my future of getting a man to marry with all these on me.”
The graduate of Economics from the Enugu State University of Science and Technology says what she needs badly is assistance from concerned people – the state governor, Mr. Sullivan Chime, the Youths Minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, human rights groups and the public to raise N2.6m to enable her have corrective plastic surgery in an Indian hospital according to her doctor.
Should you feel concerned to come to Onyinye’s assistance and restore her physically and psychologically, she could be reached on 08037811215. Such assistance would dry her tears and make her live her normal life once again. It’s her passionate plea.
Culled from the Sun
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