How three men removed my eye after raping me

She was first raped by three men, suspected to be
ritualists, who then gorged out one of her eyes
about a fortnight ago, but Zainab Mohammed, a
mother of four, is grateful to the Almighty that she
is still alive to tell her story. She is recuperating in
hospital.
The threesome accosted Zainab on March 1, in
Lukshi village in Dass Local Government Area of
Bauchi State, while she was returning from a
festive ceremony in a nearby community.
The trio, familiar faces to Zainab, seized the
unsuspecting housewife, tied and subjected her to
a most gruesome sexual ordeal, raping her
repeatedly for as long as it pleased them; as help
took long to come.
Not done yet, they pulled out her left eye, which
they planned to either sell to a herbalist for one
million naira or in the alternative use for a charm
that would make them invisible whenever they
chose to so disappear.
“I was struggling to free myself from their grip;
they held my neck and I almost died. They twisted
my hands; they spread my two legs and raped
me,” Zainab told Weekly Trust from her hospital
bed. “After they were satisfied, they brought out a
sharp knife and started removing my left eye
without pitying me.”
Little surprise that the suspected ritualists showed
Zainab no mercy; she described them as good-
for-nothing village boys who did nothing useful
but drink alcohol all day.
But the woman’s ordeal was not to last an
eternity, as her screams when she writhed in pain,
soon attracted passers-by who came to her
rescue. However, by then Zainab had already lost
one eye completely, while the second was partially
damaged.
“As I screamed and cried aloud, I then heard some
people saying, this scream inside the bush is not
normal; they came to rescue me and the three
men fled from the place,” she said.
The suspected rapists were not done yet. They had
the audacity to go to Zainab’s husband to
boastfully tell him that they had ‘finished’ his wife.
Zainab’s husband, Mohammed Saleh, a peasant
farmer, told Weekly Trust that he was in a friend’s
house when he heard news of his wife’s ordeal,
adding that when he got to the scene, he found her
in a pool of blood.
She was first rushed to the Dass General Hospital
for prompt medical attention, and later transferred
to the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University
Teaching Hospital, Bauchi.
Spokesman of the Bauchi State Police Command,
Haruna Mohammed, who confirmed the incident,
said the suspects had since been arrested and that
investigation in the matter was in progress. The
herbalist, who was either supposed to buy the
gorged eye or use it for ritual, is also in police
custody.
“The suspects have confessed to have committed
the offence and they will soon be charged to court
as soon as investigation is concluded,”
Mohammed told Weekly Trust.
But each of the suspects has a different story to
tell. First is Bitrus Yakubu, saying only he and
Sabo Rabo had carnal knowledge of Zainab, but
with her consent, exonerating Mohammed Sani, the
third suspect.
“She asked us to give her some money and sleep
with her. We went to a nearby bush and had sex
with her. It was only me and Sabo who did it.
Mohammed Sani did not have sex with her, but he
was the one who brought the idea that we should
remove her eyes,” Yakubu told Weekly Trust from
his police cell.
Native doctor Usman Sabo Maimagani, 35, denied
he ever wanted to buy Zainab’s eye for one million
naira or use it for rituals.
“I was sitting on my own when Bitrus came with
the eye … and asked me if I could prepare for him
charms that will make him to disappear. I told
him I am only a herbs seller. I don’t prepare
charms to make people vanish at will,” said Sabo,
who is married with two children.
Sabo said Bitrus left in annoyance when he told
him he could not prepare a charm for him, only to
later claim that the native doctor had offered to buy
the human part for one million naira.
“Do I look like a millionaire to you?” the native
doctor asked rhetorically from his cell.