‘How I picked up after I was sexually abused’
Popular Nollywood actress, Mrs. Rita Edochie, has said she was a victim of sexual abuse many years ago and called on parents to regularly communicate with their children. Edochie revealed this in an interaction with newsmen yesterday in Abuja.
Edochie, who was a guest at a seminar to end violence against children, said she was sexually violated at a young age by a family friend. “I was a victim of sexual abuse; that was when I was in primary six; I was going to the hospital and somebody called me.
“The boy used some diabolic means and sexually violated me; when I could not see my period, I refuse to tell my mother, because she was very strict. I love sharing my experience because at the end of the day I succeeded; If I had not succeed, I would not have been able to say this today,” Edochie said.
She explained that the pregnancy was about seven months before her mother noticed it. Edochie added that her mother was shocked at the pregnancy because she thought her being strict would not allow such a thing to happen.
“My mother asked how it happened and I told her everything; my brother picked a knife and wanted to kill me, but my mother stopped him. It happened that the mother of the boy that violated me was my mother’s friend; the boy’s mother was surprised but the boy denied it.
“My mother took me to the hospital to abort the pregnancy with a plan of taking me to my grandmother’s place at Ogede to stay for one week before returning home. I told her I may lose my life in the process; and because she loved me, she then aborted the planned abortion; I feel it was God that spoke through me.”
According to the actress, “my mother took care of the baby while I went to school; if not for my mother I would not be where I am today.’’
The veteran actress called on parents to communicate regularly with their children and make them their best friends. “Parents should always listen to their children’s complaints on happenings both in and outside the home.’’
In a related development, another Nollywood actress, Joju Muse, who was left injured after her 19-year-old younger brother, assaulted her over an argument, has condemned domestic violence and urged appropriate sanction by the authority.
It would be recall that the budding actress popularly known as ‘April’ on the Tinsel series, took to Facebook on May 22, 2016 to share details of how her younger brother beat her to a pulp resulting in her needing a chest and head x-ray as well as suffering a seizure.
According to her, the abuse was triggered because she asked her younger brother to do the dishes. “It was because I told him to do the dishes he left since Friday. And he was to return to school on Sunday morning,” she noted in her post.
While many sympathised with her, a few others criticised her for publicising her family affairs on the social media. She noted that she did it in a bid to make her brother a better man in future, who will protect his wife rather than assault her.
“If disgracing myself and my family by speaking out against this will make my brother a better man and save a life in future and also create awareness against sibling abuse, which has led to grievous regrettable circumstances in most homes, then am not sorry,” she said.
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1 Comments
When shall we start basing our moral rules on the physical world in which we live? Our current moral rules are wholly based on the questionable realities of some imaginary, metaphysical world. Can we then be surprised by the inability of our children to relate properly with the realities of the physical world? As a child Mrs Edochie knew nothing about how her body functions and her mother failed to warn her about the risks associated with puberty; God was probably in charge. .. until the apple became juice! The siblings bully should be informed that if you willingly harm your neighbour, Natural Law allows others to harm you. Cheers!
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