Popular actress and filmmaker, Iyabo Ojo, has described how she was raped as a married woman by an armed robber who stormed their house together with his gang in Ikeja, Lagos.
Speaking about her rape experiences on her YouTube Channel series, “Bare it All with I.Y”, the actress said, “The other one happened after I got married to my husband and had my kids. Then, we moved to Ikeja. I was raped by one of the armed robbers who came to our house. It is not easy to talk about rape. No matter how much you talk about it, you have to realise that it is painful. But, you are not alone.”
The actress also revealed that when she was much younger, she was also raped by a friend to her first boyfriend. Recounting the incident, she said, “I was raped by a former neighbour, who happened to be a friend to my first boyfriend. I was almost 18 at the time and had gone to visit my family members in the Obanikoro area of Lagos when he offered to drop me off on my way back to Ikeja where I was then living with my aunt.
“Along the way, he asked if he could show me his house (as he had also moved out of Obanikoro), and I agreed because I did not envisage that he could hurt me.
“However, on getting to his house, he raped me after several efforts to stop him proved abortive.”
Ojo stated that she decided not to tell her ex-boyfriend about the incident for fear that he could hurt the neighbour.
She said, “I cried my heart out. Then, I pondered about telling my ex-boyfriend. My ex-boyfriend was a bad boy and I would not say I liked all the bad things he did. So, I decided not to tell him because they might kill him or do something terrible to him if I did. I did not want that because I didn’t want blood on my hands.”
The actress also added that she was raped for the first time at the age of 14. According to her, it was done by a ‘non-family member’ when she was staying in her aunty’s house. She said she could not speak out about it because it was considered a taboo back then.
However, Ojo maintained that she would not talk about the last experience.
(Sunday PUNCH)
