Chinelo, a small, fair-complexioned young girl darting nervously between the floor and her hands as she speaks narrated to Saturday Vanguard how her second cousin, Onyeka, put her in the family way. She said she had gone to her Mother's cousins house in Ihiala, Anambra state for her JAMB exams and had slept on the same bed with her second Onyeka, (her second cousin) woke up late that fateful morning found herself wet with semen. According to her she asked Onyeka who waived it off as nothing important. With naivety, she accepted it and moved on. “I woke very late, very dizzy even his mother noticed and asked me whether I was feeling alright that morning. I told her I was okay but when I went to the bathroom, I discovered I was wet but did not feel any pain. I asked him but he smiled and waived it off. I did not disclose to anybody, I just cleaned up. I finished my mensuration five days before then. I also wrote my NECO there but left after a week I finished my exams. I went back to Onitsha, and on the 27th of July came to Lagos to my sister's house. There I missed my period, I told her and she advised that we should wait for some days saying it might be a shift.” she said.
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| Chinelo,...Raped and impregnated by her own cousin |
After a long wait, the situation remained the same with symptoms of pregnancy manifesting in full force. “A month later, I felt sick, my sister and I thought it was malaria. But what later convinced my sister was when I started vomiting. Our neighbour advised we should go to the hospital, my sister obliged and we went to General Hospital, Aguda. They even gave money for the test. It was on Sunday but the Lab personnel did not come and we returned home and went back the following day. A test was conducted and we waited for about 30 minutes when the result came out. They wrote malaria not seen and pregnancy positive. While waiting, my sister had also taken her sick daughter to see a doctor. I approached a woman sitting close to me to explain the result to me and she looked at me and asked whose result was it, saying it indicates pregnancy. When my sister came I gave it to her and she asked how come I became pregnant. I told her I don't know that I don't have a boyfriend. She took me to a their head nurse who also is a counselor. She tried to convince me but maintained my position knowing it was the truth. They decided to take a virginity test on me with the aid of a machine. The result came out and it was confirmed that I am still virgin,” she narrated.
The pressure became intense on how the pregnancy came about. They medical team and her sister probed further and Chinelo broke the ice saying: “I remembered the incident in my aunt's house and I asked whether if someone is wet without making love can result into pregnancy, they asked me who was with me and I told them how I saw myself wet that morning when I woke up. I further told them how I drank the juice and slept off. I did not know what happened again.
The medical team and her sister concluded that pregnancy could occur without a penetrative intercourse since her virginity is intact. But Chinelo said she had no idea of how it happened as she suspected she must have been drugged with the juice drink she was served which she took after dinner.
Chinelo said in a raspy voice, pausing briefly looking down again, before continuing,: “They asked me to call him and tell him the situation to know his reaction. I did and I threatened I was going to tell everybody what he did if he did not tell me the truth. He rather pleaded that he would call me back. He immediately sent a text massage to me recommending some drugs to terminate the pregnancy asking me to go get it and take it immediately. I called him back asking him if he did not know anything about why he sent such message to me? I later got to know that everybody in the family took him on and he confessed to have done it.
Since then, he stopped picking my call until last two weeks when I called him accusing him causing my problem.”
She stated that it was not the first time she would sleep on the same bed with Onyeka but insisted she did not know how he did it adding that she could have been drugged with the juice he bought because she had never slept the way she did that night.
The young girl who had already gained admission to study Mass communication at Delta State university, Abraka, Delta State would have to suspend her quest for further study at the university pending the delivery of the baby sometime in March 2012, all things being equal.
She however explained that the incident was too painful to contemplate but she had forgiven him, and would relate with him well anytime they meet again. Her words: “Forgiveness is of the Lord, I have already forgiven him. Recently some people were of the view that I should call him with another number and reign curses on him but I said no. So also, when some of my brothers decided to involve the police, my mother also objected saying they should allow the sleeping dog lie. Even if I see him anywhere I will relate with him well, I have forgiven him,” she said as her words fall over each other in a fight to assemble.
The overwhelmed young girl is currently taking refuge at the Tamar Rescue Foundation, Lagos, a non-governmental organisation that sensitizes young girls on the menace of sexual abuse and rape and offers advice to victims, mentors them through lectures, seminars and empowerment programs.
Mrs Ugo Onwuraokoye the founder of the foundation, an Igbo also from Anambra state, said: “In Igboland, such incest is termed as alu (abomination) and I understand the young man who did this is having problems with his business and his whole life just because this is an abomination. This is incest and because it is an abomination, it has its own curses.”
She disclosed that Chinelo would have to be with her pending the delivery of the baby. “They brought her to me and I have to accept the challenge because that is what my ministry Tamar Rescue Foundation is all about. Her story will teach others some lessons because some don't know that playing around even without penetration can result into pregnancy because sperm swims. It is one of the miracle becoming a pregnant virgin. Her admission is through but she cannot go back to school now until she delivers the baby. She will be here with us and after the delivery, Tamar Rescue will adopt the baby and she will continue with her studies,” Onwuraokoye said.
Despite the fact that other people are doing something on rape, it is not enough. Everyday a child is being raped. Since I started I have only been able to go 80 schools to sensitize them. Like the case of this girl, it is as a result of sheer ignorance, she didn't know and it occurred five days after her menstrual period. Again, granted that it happened, immediately there is a drug you can take to prevent pregnancy and of course sexual transmitted diseases within 24 hours. If she had been aware, she would have talked to an adult and immediately, something would have been done and she would not have been in this dilemma.
“Right now, she may not understand the full implication, right now, she can't go to school, her admission is out but she cant go until after she delivers the baby and other distractions that will follow it. By January 10, she will be six months gone in this pregnancy and yet she has not started anti-natal classes. She has not started that because there is no money, they just brought her to me. And as it is, the parents are trying to be careful because in Igboland, this is an abomination. This is a shame. You see everyday this is happening and my heart aches because parents and children are acting in ignorance. I cannot allow my daughter to go to my sister's house where I know my sister has a grown up son and sleep in the same room. I cant allow that because I am aware.”
Maintaining that Sexual abuse and rape happen everyday, she advised that parents should always teach their children ways of avoiding this vices, adding that some parents want their daughters to look trendy allowing them to wear cloths that expose their bodies, noting that the heart evil men around is thinking a different thing; they are not looking at the young girl as a child but as a woman.
What experts say about her virginity intact
It is not possible!--- Dr. Akeem Agboola of Life Fountain Clinic, Lagos
We only have one virgin Mary and I don't know about any other. Girls come here with such claim and by the time you test them, you will discover that it is all lies. For me until you confirm from the doctor who tested her virginity, I can't believe the story. If she's pregnant and claims to have been raped, it means that there was penetration. I also don't believe that pregnancy can occur by mere playing around the virgina without penetration because there must have been a penetration before an ejaculation and the sperm will locate where the cervica opening is and locate where the egg is before there can be pregnancy. In the absence of this, sombody claiming that sperm was splashed on the virgin or something, and resulted in preganacy, I wont accept that.
Yes! It's possible --- Prof. Oladapo Ashiru of Medical Art Centre, Maryland, Lagos
It is possible. The Virgina is not a big passage, it is like a hole and anything can go through, sperm can also go through. If she is at the peak, it is possible without penetration though it requires a little bit of penetration and that also can still leave the hymen unbroken. So, it is possible the hymen is still there.
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| Ugo Onwuraokoye...We'll take care of her and the baby |
One more reason for appearance of cases of females getting pregnant, without losing their virginity, is the artificial insemination technique. Many females try artificial insemination when their sexual attempts to give birth to a baby are unsuccessful. Some do it before even trying the intercourse because of fear and pain. If artificial insemination can result in pregnancy, then it is possible that pregnancy can occur without penetration. Artificial insemination is nothing but injecting a sperm into a female vagina.
A sperm can live up to 24 hours after it is ejaculated out of the male body and before it begins its action of hatching the female egg. If, within these 24 hours it reaches inside a female vagina and begins its job, then there are quite favorable chances that she would get pregnant, though her virginity is intact. Thus, just being virgin does not guarantee one of a ‘no’ on pregnancy reports. But rather than that, follow the simple rule of never bringing the male genital organs near a female's, if you really do not want to face an unwanted pregnancy, especially a virgin one.
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