Posted by By Henry Chukwurah, Port Harcourt on
At 20, she already has more than enough sad and sordid experiences to last her for the rest of her life. And for two years, Miss Blessing Michael suffered in silence the pains of an acid attack by a jealous ex-husband, because there was nobody to help her.
At 20, she already has more than enough sad and sordid experiences to last her for the rest of her life. And for two years, Miss Blessing Michael suffered in silence the pains of an acid attack by a jealous ex-husband, because there was nobody to help her.
The police couldn't help her, neither could her mother, a widow, too poor to fight for justice.
Now, moved by endless pains of the acid attack that claimed her left eye and the humiliation of her scary looks, the victim wants her estranged husband who has been on the run punished. Blessing, who now depends on charity and the peanuts she earns as a farm labourer, is in dire need of a surgical operation and rehabilitation.
Narrating her ordeal, Blessing, a native of Ororikot near Ikot Ekpene in Akwa Ibom State, told Daily Sun in Port Harcourt that her ex-husband, Mr. Gabriel Sunday Thompson, with whom she had three kids but lost one, exploited her tender age and poor background to maltreat her.
She said the marriage eventually broke up following a disagreement over her refusal to accompany the man to attend his father's burial. "When my father died, he refused to come to his burial and did not even allow me to be at the burial. My mother did everything alone. So, when his father died later, I refused to go with him," she said.
Angry Thompson was said to have sent Blessing and her children out of his house and they had to go and stay with Blessing's mother at Ohanta village near Oyigbo, a Port Harcourt suburb. Blessing said that Thompson came from his Umuebule residence to Ohanta the next morning and insisted that she attended the burial with him but her mother refused.
"He came back at night while my mother was away, broke into our house and stabbed me on my shoulder and ran away before our neighbours could gather," she said.
If Blessing thought the man was gone for good, she was dead wrong. Long after the first attack, she travelled to Port Harcourt one day to see a cousin. The cousin was absent, she had to return to her base.
Oblivious of the plot against her, the young mother, on arrival at the East-West Road junction, paid a commercial motorcyclist known to her and her ex-husband, to take her to Ohanta. But instead of taking the familiar route, the motorcyclist took another route on the excuse that he was avoiding police checkpoint.
"When we got to a spot in the bush, the motorcyclist who is my town's man stopped and suddenly, my husband appeared and poured acid on me while the motorcyclist drove off," Blessing said, adding that after writhing in pains for some time, another motorcyclist came to her rescue and took her to the Oyigbo police station from where she was taken to a clinic.
She was later referred to the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital (UPTH) where she was treated for a while before her mother took her away due to mounting medical bills.
Blessing said although she later gave policemen the true identity of the man who attacked her, nothing had been done till date. When Daily Sun called at the Oyigbo Police Station, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) was not on seat. However, the police spokeswoman in the state, Mrs. Ireju Barasua (ASP) gave assurance that the incident would be investigated.
While her search for justice continues, Blessing has appealed to public-spirited individuals, organisations and the government to come to her aid. "I want them to help me repair my face and my eyes because even the remaining one is paining me. Also, I want help for my children and our accommodation."