PUNCH
Godfrey George writes about how the myth that sleeping with mentally-unstable women brings wealth has fuelled crime in Nigeria, causing these women to become victims of continuous sexual abuse
No one seemed to know when Ibiene Egbo’s mental illness began. Some residents, who claimed to have known her, said it started sometime in 2006. Others said it was way after then.
However, a close family source, who did not want to be identified for fear of stigmatisation, said Ibiene was attacked by what he described as ‘spiritual arrows’ in 2009.
She was a nursery school minder at a popular nursery and primary school along Akie-Ama Road, Bonny Island, Rivers State, and was loved by the parents of her class pupils as a ‘very kind’ caregiver.
As a pioneer staff member when the school kicked off around 1999, she had her hands full.
She taught the kids letters of the alphabet, how to count and do simple sums.
She also picked them up from their homes and took them back at the close of school around 11am.
A former colleague of the victim, Mrs Itee (surname withheld), who claimed to have worked with her for more than five years in the school, said at the time they were together, Ibiene did not show any sign of mental illness.
Describing her as cautious and brilliant, Itee said she was shocked when she got the news that Ibiene was roaming the streets with a pregnancy.
“This world is a wicked place. If I did not see Ibiene in tattered clothes and the pregnancy, I would not have believed the news,” Itee added.
She noted that July or August 2008 was the last time she saw her.
Her stomach, according to Itee, was protruding and she (Ibiene) could not recognise her, even as she called out her name while trying to get her attention.
It was people around who asked her if she did not know that the lady had mental issues.
“I was transfixed for more than an hour. I did not remember where I was going. I wanted to follow her but people would look at me in a funny manner,” she added.
She explained that she had to reach out to another old-time colleague, who told her that the pregnancy she saw was Ibiene’s second or third.
“What I don’t know is who was responsible for the pregnancy or who always got her pregnant. I knew she had a daughter then. Nobody seems to know whether she had any family or where exactly she came from, as many said she was an Igbo woman who naturalised in Rivers State.
“There are a lot of things I do not know,” Itee said with a wearied tone.
A troubled mind
In 2009, Ibiene reportedly married a man who lived across the river.
She sailed on a canoe to come to town to work and buy groceries, before sailing back.
Her first child, our correspondent learnt, lived with a family friend in town.
Although there were reports that Ibiene’s daughter left home over alleged rape by a relation, a family source, who spoke to our reporter, was silent on the matter.
The source simply hinted that a ‘situation’ warranted the child to live with someone in town.
One day in March 2009, the source said the daughter suddenly disappeared from where she lived.
“The girl was still in primary school. Very young girl! She left the house, and for months, no one heard from her. All efforts to find her proved abortive,” the source added.
Ibiene was pregnant for her new husband when the incident happened.
Distressed, she reportedly gave birth prematurely and joined in the search for her daughter.
That was the beginning of her mental illness.
Ibiene, according to the source, started skipping school to go to Bonny Cool Beach in search of her missing daughter.
She reportedly visited markets and slept there until traders woke her up to go home.
She was said to have slept in a popular Pentecostal church, which she attended at the time, many times, praying for her child’s return.
Her husband, who was a farmer, was said to have done everything to help but all measures were abortive.
“At a time, we had to tie her down because she almost drowned. They sacked her from her school. It was painful. The parents of the kids she cared for couldn’t understand what was wrong with her. We prayed, fasted and did everything. Ibiene’s condition kept getting worse,” Mina (surname withheld), who claimed to be a close friend to Ibiene, told this reporter in a telephone interview.
Mina said it broke her heart every time she went to the village market and people would point her to where Ibiene slept the previous night.
Her hair started to tangle and she became darkened. Mina said she would take Ibiene to her own home, bathe her and she would behave ‘normal’ before leaving to go back to her house across the river.
