For 22-year old Chika Egbo, student of the Enugu State College of Education, life will never be the same again as her estranged lover, David Sulaimon, has bathed her with acid – destroying every visible skin from her chest upwards
Chika who is currently receiving treatment at the Burns Unit of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, had met Sulaimon sometime last year and they immediately struck a chord to the extent of planning marriage.
Chika’s father, Matthew Egbo, a Taraba State-based businessman, narrated the incident that led to his daughter’s state – the story brought tears to his eyes as he lamented that his daughter would never be normal again.
According to Matthew, after agreeing to give his daughter’s hand in marriage to Sulaimon, he requested him to bring his parents for proper introduction, but the suitor said his father was ill and needed to be taken abroad for treatment. He also said his mother was abroad.
However, a date of June 25 was agreed on and Sulaimon brought seven men and four women dressed in Yoruba attire to the Matthew’s hometown, Enugu, where the introduction was held.
“But around November last year, my wife travelled from Taraba to Enugu and Chika told her she was pregnant” Matthew narrated. But Chika told her parents they should not be alarmed since she and Sulaiman had agreed to get married.
Chika was instructed to go to Lagos and tell Sulaiman’s relations about the pregnancy.
But when she got back from Lagos, Chika told her father that she discovered that most of what Sulaiman had told her about his parents were lies. While his supposedly ‘ill’ father was not only hale and hearty, he denied knowledge of any plans by his son to get married. Likewise, Sulaimon’s mother was not abroad as claimed – she received Chika well and even expressed joy that her son had found someone to marry.
That would be the last time the Matthew’s family heard anything from Sulaimon nor his family until she put to bed a baby girl on May 4. Chika still informed Sulaimon of her safe delivery but he gave series of excuses why he could not visit her.
He reportedly told her he was facing some challenges and did not have the wherewithal to take care of the baby at the moment.
After a few months and Chika’s baby girl was weaned, her parents took the decision to take care of the baby so she could continue with her education.
It wasn’t till November that Sulaimon began to request that he needed to see his baby, but Matthew told him to bring his parents to come and iron things out.
Chika was said to have insisted she did not want to have anything to do with the young man anymore.
But on November 5, Chika travelled to Lagos after Sulaimon had informed her that his mother wanted to see her. The unsuspecting girl left Enugu without informing her parents. That would later turn out to be a move she’ll rue for life.
From what Matthew gathered, soon as Chika got to Igando, Lagos, Sulaimon met her and she demanded that he should take her to his mother who wanted to see her.
“What we gathered from the little she could mumble to us was that Sulaimon went behind a house and as they were about to pick an okada to his mother’s house, he brought out a polythene.
“But when they stopped at a point and Chika thought they were going to proceed to his mother’s house, he just opened a container in the polythene he was carrying and emptied its content on her head.
“She told us when she realised that what Sulaimon poured on her had began eating into her skin, she raised the alarm and called for help.”
It was learnt that passersby and sympathisers, who had been alerted to the young woman’s plight, pursued the fleeing Sulaimon and when he was apprehended, they took him to Ikotun Police Station.
“Till now, I still don’t know why he did what he did,” Matthew said.
Divisional Police Officer of Ikotun, Mr. Augustin Akika, confirmed the incident, but said the suspect had been transferred to the state Criminal Investigations Department, Yaba.
Culled From PUNCH
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