Rebecca Ejifoma
Exactly a week after reporting her husband, Suleman Usman Hanosi, 37, to police for serially abusing their three children, including a boy (names withheld), Mrs. Mary Usman, was stabbed at the Onikan area of Lagos, on her way home from the court.
Usman was said to have been stabbed after the rescuer and Ben Bruce Foundation Coordinator, Olu-Adebiyi Ore, dropped her off at Onikan to go home.
According to Usman, she was fortunate enough that the object she was stabbed with did not leave much damage on her body.
This incident was not in isolation as her husband’s family and relatives were said to have threatened her repeatedly for reporting their son to the police.
The alleged serial paedophile, who resided at 1 North Avenue, Apapa, Lagos, is from Niger Republican but married to the Imo State indigene.
He was arrested on Tuesday September 18 after Mirabel Centre Ikeja confirmed the survivors were penetrated both through their vaginas and anuses at midnight.
The two girls and a boy, are aged eight, five and six years old respectively.
The entire incident had started on September 14, when the woman called the Ben Bruce Foundation after her six-year-old son told her how his daddy always put his sexual organ into his sisters’ body and then also put it in his (son’s) mouth.
In an exclusive interview with THISDAY afterwards, Mrs. Usman said the abuse had been going on since 2016.
She disclosed that initially, her daughters had complained of pain in their sexual organ and she didn’t believe them until her son confirmed it.
She said: “They told me how he constantly tied their mouths and had carnal knowledge of them- my daughters, his own children, every midnight in our house.
“Despite his arrest, he has been harassing us. Even his family went on to drag me to their Baale in Apapa.”
Olu-Adebiyi further revealed that following threats from the husband’s family and relatives for her to drop the case, she grieving mother was attacked and stabbed.
“She added: “I spoke to the Apapa Baale, he advised we relocate Mary as the family harbouring her are quite scared as well. However, he promised to give her the little protection they can from their neighbourhood.
“This is one of the few women that chose to get justice for her children over her marriage. We all know most women will rather plead we leave their husbands than get justice. I feel she doesn’t need to see how difficult it is sometimes to get justice.”
The rescuer further queried on why it was taking forever to arraign the serial abuser, even though she gave credit to the police at Adeniji Adele for their efforts in the arraignment process.
She added, “we can’t keep stressing the survivors. It is not fair. Even the mother broke down emotionally today. I had to hand her over to our counsellor. To aggravate it, her boss warned that if she did not resume tomorrow, she would be sacked.”