News

How a teenage Nigerian maid was raped, impregnated and sacked by her Lebanese boss

By Tireni Adebayo

Posted on March 26, 2016

One 17-year-old Roda Timothy, who left Plateau
for Lagos, last year for better life has been raped and impregnated by her
Lebanese boss who later kicked her out of his house when all his efforts
to abort the pregnancy failed.
Her boss popularly
called Hussein, works as a professional chef for highbrow companies in
Lagos and resides on Allen Avenue, Ikeja agreed to pay Roda N10, 000
monthly. Two months after impregnating her, Hussein sacked her after
paying her a paltry sum of N19,000 for the two months she worked for
him.

Roda who pleaded passionately that her photograph should not be taken then narrated how it all happened to Crime Guard

“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.

How I was raped

“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.

Second round of rape

“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.”

Her brother speaks
“Roda’s brother, Joshua also narrated his story to Crime Guard. According to him,

“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 to NAPTIP

“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”.

Joshua lamented the atrocities perpetrated by some expatriates resident
in Nigeria, saying “ these atrocities continue unabated because the
government and relevant authorities ignore the plight of helpless
victims who are at their mercy,”he stated.
When Crime Guard visited the residence of the Lebanese, Mr Hussein in
Ikeja, he was not around but a lady in the house promised to inform him
about our visit and get back to us.

Promise by Hussein’s nephew
The next morning, one Mr Hassan called claiming to be the nephew of Mr
Hussein Ali. He said his sister informed him of our visit to his
residence the previous day. According to him, whatever happened between
his Hussein and Roda was a mistake and that they were doing everything
within to resolve the issue while Hussein has agreed to take care of
Roda until she gives birth. He however added that a DNA will be carried
out to determine the paternity of the baby but the family will not
refuse to take responsibility. “We are doing everything to ensure she
delivers safely,” he added.