SAD TALE OF a teenager: Loses father at 9, abandoned by mum, raped and butchered at 15

She is just 15 years old but life has dealt more cruelly with her. The story of Bilikisu Muraina, an indigene of Ede in Ede North Local Government Area of Osun State, reveals a pathetic picture.  At age nine, the young Bilikisu had already lost her father while her mother abandoned her after getting married to another man in Lagos. At the tender age, she was left in the care of her grandfather to grapple with life and also nurse her younger brother.

As if that was not too heavy a load at her age, Bilikisu, now 15 years old and a Junior Secondary School student in Ede, woke up like every other person on Thursday, 1st May, 2014 unaware that life has another bitter pill waiting for her to swallow. 


On the fateful day, she headed straight to the farm as it was usual of her during holidays. She planned to seize the advantage of the public holiday to get mangoes at her grandfather’s farm to sell in order to get money for the upkeep of the family.

This is How Saturday Tribune And Sun Reported It

A nurse at the hospital who did not want to be mentioned told Saturday Tribune: “After being attacked inside a bush in Ede, she (Bilikisu) was abandoned for a day, before she managed to crawl out. The deep cuts in her skull, which could not be treated immediately, had bred maggots, which were coming out from her eyes and ear.”



Bilikisu was said to have gone to the bush to pluck mangos earlier last week when she was allegedly attacked and defiled by her yet-unidentified assailant.

Her aunt, Rukayat Muraina, said the incident occurred last Wednesday.

Miss Muraina said: “We looked for her but could not see her in the night around 11:00p.m. We went back home to sleep, but we didn’t tell her grandfather that we could not see her.

Bilikisu 

“The following day, we continued the search. But, when we were about to go out, two guys came to our house and told us a lady was lying down along Abeere, named Bilikisu of Ile Adodo in Ede.

“We told them that we had been looking for her and followed them to the place with her grandfather. When we got there, we saw her in the bush with several wounds. She couldn’t talk.

So, we took her to one hospital in Ede, where we were referred to the Muslim Hospital at Oke Gada, also in Ede. From there, we were also directed to bring her to LAUTECH.

“From what she told us, she said she went to pluck mangoes and that on her way back, she met a man who asked for mangoes from her. And as she wanted to give them to him, the man said he did not want mangoes anymore but that Bilikisu should remove her trousers. But when she told the guy that she wouldn’t do that, he threatened to attack her with a cutlass if she insisted on not removing it (pair of trousers).”

According to Miss Muraina, the man then began to strangle Bilikisu and later inflicted wounds on her with the cutlass until she could not talk anymore.


“When the guy noticed that a motorcycle was approaching, he dragged Bilikisu into the bush and ran away. That was all she could remember. Bilikisu was unconscious till yesterday morning. When we asked her this morning about the guy that inflicted the injuries on her, she said she could recognise him, and that he was a brother to her primary school friend, who has now gone to Lagos.

She gave the name of the guy as Tunde,” Muraina said.


When Saturday Sun visited the victim at the hospital where she is still receiving treatment, maggots were seen coming out of almost all the parts of her body. This, the medical team treating her said was caused as a result of the delay she suffered before she was taken to the hospital, having spent two days inside the bush with all manne of insects and reptiles biting her in different parts of her body. The condition, the medical experts said, would improve with time as she
takes her prescriptions regularly.

Narrating her ordeal further, Bulikisu said: “As I was coming from the farm early in the morning with a basket of mangoes on my head, I noticed that a man was behind me and later the man, who could not be less than 35 years old, challenged me to give her a mango and I obliged. Later he said that I should remove my trousers that he wanted to make love to me and I started running. He later ran after me and beat me.”

According to her: “I could not conquer the man as he used all his strength to force me and he beat me with a machete. Every part of my body was macheted and after about 30 minutes, he took me into another bush and left me there. I didn’t know where I was until I was taken to the hospital here where I discovered that maggots were coming out of my body including nose, eyes and ears. I don’t know how I can live well again.”


The Chairman, Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC) of the teaching hospital, Dr Benjamin Eegunranti, who also spoke on the matter, assured that the victim would survive the attack with the attention given to her by medical professionals at the hospital, stressing that three different categories of medical professionals including neuron-surgeons, plastic surgeons and orthopaedic surgeons are working on the victim.

He said the victim survived fractures on the brain bone and will need huge amount of money for surgery to be carried out on her, adding, however, that the management of the hospital had already given her a temporary waiver considering her condition and the financial strength of her family.

Eegunranti, who maintained that the hospital has necessary facilities to take care of the girl stressed that the treatment would continue until she is confirmed medically fit, saying that “the victim is responding well to treatment and very soon there will be notable improvement on her. Her condition would not have been that bad if not because she was discovered late.”