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.
The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II’s husband, Prince Philip, will take place at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, on April 17, Buckingham Palace announced Saturday.
The ceremony at Windsor, west of London, which will be televised but have no public element because of coronavirus restrictions, will be preceded by a national minute’s silence.
Royal officials said the
99-year-old Duke of Edinburgh’s grandson, Prince Harry, would attend, but his
heavily pregnant wife, Meghan, had been advised against travelling from the
United States on medical grounds.
Mohamed Salah can silence the critics who question his loyalty to Liverpool by avenging the most painful moment of his career when the Egypt star faces Real Madrid in the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday.
Salah sparked howls of indignation among Liverpool
fans recently when he refused to rule out the possibility of playing for a
Spanish club in the future.
The fact that Salah was speaking to
Madrid-based newspaper Marca at the time only increased speculation that he was
laying the groundwork for a move to Real Madrid.
“I hope to be able to play for many more
years. Why not? No one knows what’s going to happen in the future, so maybe one
day, yes. It’s not up to me,” Salah said when asked if he was keen to try
Spanish football.
Salah’s flirtatious response was similar to
the one he gave to another Spanish outlet in December when questioned
about a potential La Liga move.
“I think Madrid and Barcelona are two top
clubs,” he told AS.
Whether either Real or Barcelona could
afford to buy Salah amid the current financial difficulties caused by the
coronavirus pandemic remains to be seen.
But
for a club whose supporters pride themselves on their passionate and
unflinching loyalty to the Liverpool cause, Salah’s refusal to rule out a
switch to Spain was a careless own goal.
It tapped into the long-standing suspicion
among a section of Liverpool’s fanbase that Salah, whose contract runs until
2023, is motivated by personal glory rather than team success.
The cynics support their claims by highlighting Salah’s occasional spats with Liverpool forward Sadio Mane when he shoots rather than passing to a better placed team-mate.
They also point to Salah’s sulky response
to being substituted during the defeat against Chelsea in March, and his
reported frustration at being ignored for the Liverpool captaincy in the
absence of the injured Jordan Henderson.
– Real revenge
mission –
Of course, Salah could rightly mention that Liverpool might well have failed to
win either the Champions League in 2019 or the Premier League last season
without his goals and sublime skills.
Even this season, with Liverpool in the midst of a failed title defence
marred by seemingly endless injuries, Salah’s haul of 26 goals — including one
in Saturday’s 3-0 win at Arsenal — shows what a threat he carries.
With 120 goals in 193 appearances in all
competitions since joining from Roma in 2017, Salah is rightly ranked among Liverpool’s
all-time greats.
But
the 28-year-old’s place in the hearts of Kopites might not be so secure.
Michael Owen and Steve McManaman — both
local heroes at Liverpool at the time — were never so fondly regarded after
swapping Anfield for Real’s Bernabeu.
Inspiring Liverpool to a revenge victory
against Real in a rematch of the 2018 Champions League final won by the Spanish
club would go some way to appeasing the doubters.
That bitter 3-1 loss in Kiev remains a
personal nadir for Salah, who was in tears on the pitch after being forced to
come off with a first half injury following a clash with Sergio Ramos.
Salah had suffered a dislocated shoulder
that would hamper him at the World Cup later that year, with some claiming
Ramos had deliberately exacerbated the injury with the way he dragged the
Egyptian to the turf.
“Let’s just say that I have special
motivation to win the tie and go through to the semi-finals,” Salah told Marca
about the Real reunion.
Ironically, Real captain Ramos is expected
to miss both legs of the quarter-final with a calf injury.
Ramos’s
absence is a major boost for Liverpool as they seek to salvage a miserable
season by winning a seventh European Cup.
If Salah can play a leading role in making
that dream come true, his commitment might not be questioned quite so often.
Tito Idakula, the daughter of the former governor of Oyo State, Rasheed Ladoja, has revealed that she had two abortions in the past.
Idakula, who is married to singer Bez, said
she lived in shame and guilt for years over the choice she made.
Sharing on Twitter on Easter
Day, Idakula said despite deserving punishment for her sins, she was set free
by Jesus Christ who took it all upon himself.
According to her, “I’ve had 2 abortions. I
took the only options I thought were available to me at the time.
“Even in this age of pro-choice, I am not
personally proud of the choices I made. And I lived in shame and guilt for
years.
“It almost crippled me when I found myself
fighting for the life of my daughter.
“I
felt I deserve this punishment. Now I’m ready, and God is finally ready to get
me back.
“But then I didn’t understand the salvation and righteousness that I have in Christ. That, in his death and resurrection, Jesus Christ destroyed my shame and gave me a new name, a new beginning and identity.
“Even in the midst of my ‘sin’ and deepest
shame, God couldn’t have punished me because that is what Christ took on when
he chose that sacrifice.
“In the stripes and death, he took all my
sin, and in his resurrection, he set me FREE.
“You begin to know that your works are just
you walking in agreement with what God has already done.
“I am here doing all that I do because
nothing holds me back. No guilt, no condemnation, no shame! Christ took it
all.”