•At 18 months, he survived an acid bath from a cousin. He became a shoemaker, but burglars robbed him of his tools. Now he needs help to undergo surgery and to start life afresh
By Job Osazuwa
His story is a pathetic one. If you say he is destined to live against all odds, you would be right. At one year and six months, Abiodun Dada was bathed with raw acid by his cousin. The perpetrator was not satisfied with just pouring the acid on the toddler; he took a step further and forced some content down the boy’s throne. He then abandoned him to die. It was gathered that the victim’s screams drew a neighbour’s attention to his ordeal.
He said he was told that when his mother arrived at the scene, the damage had already been done. He was wreathing in excruciating pain. Grabbing the poor boy, his mother ran to a nearby hospital, where he was given first aid.
The incident, which happened 24 years ago in Jos, Plateau State, has left indelible scars all over Dada’s body. His face is the most affected part, leaving his left ear completely condemned by the acid burn.
In an encounter with the reporter recently in Lagos, the survivor narrated the chilling experience. But he disclosed that he has long forgiven the perpetrator of the crime.
“My own cousin did this to me. I don’t want to mention his name here because I have forgiven him many years ago. There is no point seeking revenge because it cannot change my situation. Though it was not easy, I have to moved on and God has been helping me since l forgave him,” he said.
Narrating his travails, Dada, who hails from Eruwa village in Ibarape East Local Government Area of Oyo State, said he had to confront his parents to tell him what exactly happened to him that disfigured his face. He said he was shocked when they told him that it was his cousin that committed the crime.
Said he: “It was an act of wickedness and envy that led to this. I am from a polygamous family. My late father had three wives and 16 children and my mother was the third, and l was her first child. She was dealing in foodstuff and God prospered her more than the other wives.
“Her prosperity caused jealousy in the eyes of her fellow wives. They believed that my father was pampering and taking care of her more than them. There were always unnecessary fights, even among the children.
“Sadly enough, it was the son of my father’s elder brother that did this to me. My father brought this very boy to live with him when he lost his father. My father registered him to learn battery charging in Jos when he was 12 years old.”
Dada said his cousin took sides with the other wives, and he started maltreating him. When he came of age, he learnt how the cousin took the matter personal and ganged up with Dada’s stepbrothers to ensure that he knew no peace in the house.
On June 30, 1993, the day that Dada was attacked with acid, the architect of the crime had brought raw acid from his workplace to execute his evil plans.
“When he returned from work around 6pm, he greeted my mother in her shop at our house and asked after me. My mum told him that I was in the bedroom; she never knew his evil intentions. He went straight to our room and tricked me to the backyard. He poured acid on my head and also gave me to drink and he immediately ran away.
“Thank God that our neighbour’s daughter was close to the place; she raised the alarm that something terrible has happened to me. When my mother rushed in, I was already eaten by the acid. She took me to the hospital and the bitter journey has continued till date,” he said.
According to Dada, the doctors at the first hospital told his parents that he was already dead shortly after administering first aid to the patient. But his mother refused to give up; she took him to the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), where he was revived.
Dada said he spent over 10 years in different hospitals across Nigeria, sinking a deep hole in his parents’ and other relatives’ pockets. He recalled that there was a particular diagnosis that showed that he wouldn’t be able to have children due to the effect of the acid he drank.
He said the cousin, who was about 13 when he carried out the evil act, confessed to the crime after his arrest. According to Dada, he could not face the weight of the law due to his own parents’ intervention, who pleaded for the matter to be resolved out of court.
“They told them at the court that it was a family matter. My mother reluctantly agreed to let the boy go free so that her husband’s family members would not regard her as a heartless wife, if she had done otherwise,” Dada said.
Having been discharged from the hospital, he told the reporter that he was too proud to go begging for alms on the street, as most physically-challenged people do, hence, he decided to learn shoemaking, contrary to his childhood dream. He had wanted to study medicine to become a doctor, but the incident shattered his ambition.
Dada struggled to finish secondary school even though most of his age-mates had graduated from the university by that time. He said his parents had exhausted all the money they had on him and couldn’t sponsor him to the university.
In 2012, Dada started his own shoemaking business, having spent two years learning the craft in his hometown in Oyo State. He specialises in male and female footwear.
Jettisoning the doctors’ report that he would not be able to reproduce, he got married to Romoke, a fashion designer, in 2015. And providence smiled on him when he was blessed with a baby girl in 2016.
Dada was again visited with another ugly incident in January 2016. While his business was already booming, thieves burgled his shop and carted away all his tools, including a generator and the industrial machine. He has been struggling to bounce back after the incident.
For him to return to the good days when his business was thriving, he said he needs assistance in the form of about N300,000 to rent a shop and buy equipment.
“For the fact that I survived till this moment, I believe I will survive more decades. Although, I still feel pain every day, I thank God that I am alive. I can’t open my mouth well when talking or eating. My doctors told me sometime ago that I needed to be flown outside Nigeria to undergo some corrective surgery but it requires huge amounts of money,” he said.