Actress Rita Edochie
In an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday in Abuja, popular Nollywood actress, Mrs Rita Edochie, who was in the FCT as a guest at a seminar to end violence against children, disclosed that she was a victim of s*xual abuse many years ago and called on parents to regularly communicate with their children.
The veteran actress who told NAN that she was s*xually violated at a young age by a family friend said, "I was a victim of s*xual abuse, that was when I was in primary six, I was going to the hospital and somebody called me.
"The boy used some diabolic means and s*xually violated me, when I could not see my period, I refused to tell my mother, because she was very strict.
"I love sharing my experience because at the end of the day I succeeded, If I had not succeed, I would not have been able to be saying it," she said.
The actress explained that the pregnancy was about seven months before her mother noticed it, adding that her mother was shocked at the pregnancy because she thought her being strict would not allow such a thing to happen.
"My mother asked how it happened and I told her everything; my brother picked a knife and wanted to kill me, but my mother stopped him.
"It happened that the mother of the boy that violated me was my mother’s friend; the boy’s mother was surprised but the boy denied.
"My mother took me to hospital to abort the pregnancy with a plan of taking me to my grandmother’s place at ‘Ogede’ to stay for one week before returning home.
"I told her I may lose my life in the process and because she loved me, she then aborted the planned abortion; I feel it was God that spoke through me," she said.
According to the actress, her mother took care of the baby while she went to school, otherwise she wouldn’t have been where she was today, she explained.
She called on parents to communicate regularly with their children and make them their best friends. "Parents should always listen to their children’s complaints on happenings both in and outside the home."