This is a tale of woe, of how a 17-year-old girl, Roda Timothy, who left her home in Plateau state for Lagos, last year, in search of greener pastures, was raped by a Lebanese man and how Nigerian authorities failed to give her justice.

According to Vanguard, Roda was employed as a maid by the Lebanese man, named Hussein, in Lagos.

Hussein, who is alleged to have raped and impregnated her, later threw her out of his house after several attempts to abort the pregnancy failed.

The Lebanese resides in Allen Avenue, Ikeja and works as a chef for upscale companies in Lagos.

The poor girl, who spoke to Vanguard on the condition of that her picture won’t be taken, stated that: “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.”

“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.”

“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.”

The teenage girl’s brother, Joshua, told Vanguard how the Nigerian authorities failed to give justice to his sister.

In his words: “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 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.”

On his part, Hussein, who spoke through his cousin, acknowledged the pregnancy, saying that whatever happened between him and Roda was a mistake and that he would take care of Roda and the child after a DNA test.

NAPTIP is yet to comment on the case.