By Evelyn Usman

Fate has been unkind to 18-year-old Blessing Chinedu , owing to the unpleasant experience she went through in her tender age . First, was the demise of her father through an auto crash , while her mother was pregnant of her, a tragedy that  denied her fatherly love. The tragedy also denied her an the opportunity of seeing the four walls of a school, as her mother could not afford her basic tools like writing materials .

As if that was not enough, death came calling again. This time around, it snatched her mother , who engaged in all kinds of menial jobs which could barely put food on the table.

Blessing Chinedu

Blessing in this interview with  Crime Guard  , disclosed that she fled Benin, the Edo State capital, to Lagos, following pressure from one of her aunts to go into prostitution.

Since then, she has been roaming the streets of Lagos, without a roof over her head and begging for daily bread .

Last Sunday, she delivered a set of twins- a boy and a girl , a pregnancy that resulted after she was raped by five men, while sleeping in the open. But one of the babies is presently missing , as a stranger whom she ignorantly gave him to, absconded with the baby.

Gang raped by robbers

Narrating her ordeal in tears ,  Blessing said : “My father was from Nsuka, Enugu state while my mother was from Benin, Edo state. After their death , my aunt, Sophia, said I should go into prostitution when I was 15. She said she would take me to a brothel where I would see girls of my age and that whatever I got, would be used to buy clothes, shoes, bags and food for me. When I refused, she drove me out of her house and I went into the streets begging. Out of fraustration, I sneaked into a vehicle which was leaving Benin city and found myself in Ajegunle , Lagos.

One night while I was sleeping in front of a shop at Iyalode street , five men came and started fondling with me. When I attempted to resist, they brought out a gun, knife and an axe from their bags. That was when I discovered that they were robbers . They took turns to have me and left.

Pastor’s alleged role

“Months later, a woman in the area called me aside and said that I was pregnant. I noticed I was adding weight but did not attribute it to pregnancy. I left Ajegunle to Ejigbo, sleeping wherever I could lay my head, at night. Those who had pity on me gave me food, clothes and money.

One day, Pastor of a church at Double Power Line , Ejigbo , took me to a home , where I was asked to append my signature on a document. He also offered me N200,000. But one of the staff at the home secretly took me out and advised me not to accept the money , nor sign as requested. The pastor took offence at my refusal and told members of his church to stop rendering assistance to me”

Disappearnce of baby

Continuing, the teeanger said : “ Last Sunday, I was sleeping in front of a shop at Jimoh Dada street , Ejigbo, and felt the urge to go and urinate at about  2.30am  . But when I bent down, I felt something thrust out of my private part, followed by the cry of a baby.

Almost immediately, a woman on a motorbike who heard the cry of the baby, stopped and asked where the cry was coming from. I pointed at the baby on the ground and she immediately asked me to lie down and exerted pressure on my stomach , saying she wanted to remove the placenta. But another baby came out. She cleaned the babies and gave me N7.600 to buy what I needed for them, before she left.

By Monday, I decided to visit an Ishan woman who usually gave me food and clothes , at Adekoyoye street, Ejigbo , to inform her that I had delivered . As I was leaving, I dropped one of the babies (girl) with a woman at Omiale street and the other, with another woman who stood in front of a shop at Rotimi street” (both in Ejigbo ).

But trouble as gathered , started after the woman she went to visit , insisted on following her to the places she claimed to have kept the babies ,in order to ascertain the authenticity of her claim.

But to the dismay of all, Blessing said : “ I only saw one of my babies , the female , with the woman I dropped her with. As I speak , I can’t find the woman I gave my other baby (boy) to . She told me she owned the locked shop , where I found her. But on enquiry, landlady of the building said that the owner of the shop died recently.

Please help me find my baby”, she pleaded passionately , as she adjusted herself to breast feed her baby and at the same time, wiping her tears with the helm of a wrapper.

As at Tuesday, a good samaritan who refused to disclose her identity , took the teenager and her baby to SOS, Ejigbo for mediacl care . Other nursing mothers who went to the centre for same purpose, were seen gathered around Blessing to hear her pathetic tale.