From MARIAM ALESHINLOYE-AGBOOLA, Jos
It was double tragedy for Ruth Simon, a 20-year-old girl who was raped and had part of her lower lip chopped off by her attackers. Ruth, who said the incident happened close to her house in Jenta Adamu area of Jos, explained that on September 23, at 11.30 pm while she was returning home, she was accosted by two men suspected to be residing in the area.
She said when they stopped her and started making overtures to her, she pleaded that they should let her go. But before she could get away, they grabbed and pinned her to the ground and one of them covered her mouth with his palm to prevent her from shouting while they began undressing her.
Ruth, who said she was a housemaid at the West of Mines area of Jos said she was still struggling and shouting for help as they were undressing when one of them brought out a knife and chopped off part of her lower lip.
She was wailing in pains when two of them, one after the other had sex with her and abandoned her at the spot afterwards. She later reported the incident at the ‘A’ Division Police Station and through the description she gave, one of her attackers, John Akwara, a welder was arrested, while the other man whose name was given as Ezra Dachalon was still at large. However, this had not solved her problem because Ruth had been unable to get adequate medical attention after the incident.
Her only sibling, Adigizi Simon, an OND holder of Plateau Polytechnic told Daily Sun that since the incident occurred, he had been solely responsible for his sister’s treatment. He said he was yet to get a job and had been depending on handouts from wellwishers to get treatment for his sister. Adigizi said they were natives of Nasarawa Eggon in Nasarawa State.Their father is dead while their mother works as a cleaner at the Police Children’s School in Jos. “It was because she could not afford to send both of us to school that Ruth is working as a housemaid,” Adigizi said. “Since the incident occurred, I have been unable to do anything for myself. I took her to a clinic where the lip was stitched but after some days, the stitches were removed because it developed some infections and pus was coming out of it.
Based on what people prescribed, I have been buying medicine for her to take to kill the pains. “The other boy they say is still at large lives in our area but his father is hiding him in the house. We have no means to bring in the police to arrest him when we spot him in the neighbourhood. We want the police to arrest his father because we believe if they do that, the boy will turn himself to the police.”
He said Ruth was examined after she was raped and was told she was not infected with HIV but they could not ascertain what could happen to her later. Adigizi maintained that he could not take his younger sister to a bigger hospital for treatment due to lack of fund. Meanwhile, Ruth who can no longer go to her place of work is often seen covering her mouth with a piece of rag, hoping that help would come her way, even as she urgently needs plastic surgery to put her lip back in shape.
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