She recalled the first incident was when she was just 14. Popular movies actress, Iyabo Ojo, has shared how she was raped five different times.
She spoke during a recent
episode of her YouTube series titled ‘Bare it all with I.Y‘.
The actress explained she
decided to share her story to encourage others who have had a similar
experience to speak up with a view to tackling rape and sexual violence in
society.
Iyabo Ojo narrated
how she was first raped by a non-family member when she was staying with her
aunt before witnessing the second sexual assault which led to seeking for
safety elsewhere.
“Like I said, yes I
have been raped before. Not once but five times. And trust me when I say it
wasn’t easy.
“The first time I
was raped, I was 14. It happened at my aunty’s house (not a family member).
“I didn’t want to
talk about it because it was taboo to talk about it. I felt I would be blamed
for everything that happened,” she said.
The actress said
she was raped the third time by a neighbour, who happened to be a friend to
Emmanuel, her first lover at the time.
Ojo said she was
almost 18 at the time and had gone to visit his family members around the
Obanikoro axis of Lagos where the neighbour offered to drop her off on her way
back to Ikeja when she was living with her aunt.
The entrepreneur
said along the way, he had asked her if he could show her his house to which
she approved as she never envisaged that he could hurt her.
She, however, said on getting to his house, the
neighbour raped her after several efforts to stop him proved abortive.
“I cried my heart out. Then I pondered about
telling my ex-boyfriend. My ex-boyfriend was a bad boy and I wouldn’t say I
liked all the bad things he did.
“So I decided not to tell him because they might
kill or do something terrible to him if I did. I didn’t want that because I
didn’t want blood on my hands,” she said.
Ojo said she was also raped by one of the armed robbers who invaded their
house at Ikeja after she got married.
“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’s 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,” she revealed.
