Boluwatife on hospital bed with her mother
| credits: Kunle Falayi

Eighteen-year-old Boluwatife Ajadi has finally been able to speak, one week after she was attacked with a razor by a young man at Baruwa area of Ipaja, Lagos and almost died.

Boluwatife, an SS3 pupil of progress Secondary School in Baruwa, who explained how she became a victim of the gruesome attack which left her hanging on to life with a deep slash wound on her neck at the Samas Hospital, Baruwa, said the culprit, Sakiru Buari, popularly called Henry in the area, was not her boyfriend.

Buari had told Punch in police custody after his arrest the day after the attack, that Boluwatife was his girlfriend but that he did not know what kind of spirit led him to attack her.

“I don’t know much about him. I only see him in our area. He had asked me to be his girlfriend a number of times but I always refused,” Boluwatife said.

Boluwatife said she had told her parents that she was going to make her hair but that she did not know it was going to take that long.

“There was a crowd of customers at the salon where I went to make my hair that day. By the time they were done with my hair, it was already late.

“From the salon, I went to my mother’s shop to pick up my sister but she had already left for home when I got there.

“I remember my mother always warned us not to go through a footpath close to her shop in the night because it was always deserted. So, that day, I decided to take another route which is longer.”

According to Boluwatife, the danger she had avoided would later ambush her in a dark part of the road she took.

She said, “As I was going, I heard a voice from the dark telling me to come. I looked at the place and realised it was Henry (Buari). I immediately thought that he probably wanted to rape me.

“I told him he should leave me alone and that if he wanted to talk to me, he should wait till the following morning.

“I walked away and hastened my step. I had no idea that he followed me. By the time I heard his footsteps behind me, it was too late.”

Boluwatife said the next thing she felt was her hair being pulled from the back suddenly and a hand clamping over her mouth.

“He covered my mouth with a cloth and held on to my hair but I was able to turn around and noticed that it was Henry. I started begging him but that was when he first cut me with the razor.

“I struggled with him and when I could, I screamed for help. But when he realised I might attract attention, he dragged me towards an abandoned building beside the road. He pinned me on the ground and started slashing my neck again with the razor.

“He said I was pompous and feeling big towards him. I tried to scream but when he covered my mouth with his hand, I bit him and the razor dropped to the ground. He gripped my bleeding neck.

“I could have died there that day because when the people who heard my noise got there and saw me, rather than help me, they ran after my attacker,” Boluwatife said.

They later caught up with Buari.

According to her, when she realised that she had to do something fast or bleed to death, she picked herself up and staggered to the nearest house.

“I got to a house and begged a woman I saw there to help me, I said I did not want to die but the woman fainted when she saw my neck. I left the house and staggered home and my sister eventually got someone to rush me to the hospital,” she said.

Boluwatife’s mother, Oluwanife, said she was in her husband’s hometown, Ogbomosho, when the incident occurred.

“I can only thank God that my prayer against every form of calamity during that journey was answered. We will continue to pray to ensure that justice is done on this case. That man must go to jail,” she said.

Twenty-one-year old Buari is currently in custody of the Department of Criminal Investigation, Yaba, Lagos.

A police officer in charge of the case said that the suspect would soon be charged to court.

– Punch