How I was strangled, forced to transfer money — NYSC member

An assaulted female doctor, who is doing her National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) programme in Akwa Ibom State, said her assailant forced her to transfer her money to his account.

She said the assailant strangled her and threatened to kill her.

The doctor, who is doing her NYSC programme at St. Theresa’s Hospital, Use Abat in Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State was attacked at her residence in the community on 2 January, around 5 p.m., about 30 minutes after she left the hospital.

The doctor said her assailant thought she had died before he fled.

She recounted her experience in an 11-minute voice note uploaded on X.

An X user @enodamade, whose profile says he is a physician, uploaded on the microblogging platform the voice note and photos showing scars on the victim’s neck.

He said the victim was a junior colleague.

The X user tagged the Akwa Ibom Governor, Umo Eno, in the post, and urged the governor to protect the young doctor.

How I survived

There was a repeated bang on the front door of the doctor’s private residence around 5 p.m., which made her assume there was an emergency in the hospital, according to her.

“What’s the emergency?” the doctor said she had asked from the inside of her room when she heard the first bang. She went to the door and opened it, but did not see anyone outside.

She went back into her room. The banging continued this time “violently”. Again, she asked who it was and what the emergency was, but got no response.

“I went and opened the door again. He (the assailant) pushed himself to the door so I could not shut it.

“He was now asking, ‘Where is the doctor?’ I asked him what is the issue, (and) that the doctor was not around, but he kept asking if there was someone in the house with me and I said no. He kept asking… That he was having the feeling that there was somebody in the house with me.”

Her assailant, she said, locked the door, and threatened to kill her if she did not cooperate.

“He threatened my life with (a) knife. I tried to escape into the bedroom but he held me down, wrapped an extension cord around my neck, dragged me into the bedroom, tied my hands to my back, legs, neck and mouth and went around searching the house.

“After that, he dragged me back to the parlour and started strangling me. I could not breathe,” she said in the voice note.

“I was choking. After some time, he came back and punched me violently in my neck and after some time I stopped breathing. I could remember he raised my hands and brought them down.

“He was sure that I was dead. After some time, in the night, when it was really dark, he left, but I was still hearing some voices.”

The victim said her neighbours later came in and raised the alarm, and notified her employer before she was taken to the hospital.

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“The only reason I survived was the grace of God,” she said in the voice note.

“I’ve submitted all evidence, including the name of the person and (my) bank statement to the police,” she added.

The police spokesperson in the state, Odiko Macdon, when contacted, asked our reporter to send a message to him on the matter for his comment, but he did not respond to the message at the time of filing this report.

Governor Eno reacts

Governor Eno has directed the commissioner of police in the state to investigate the incident.

The Commissioner for Information in Akwa Ibom, Ini Ememobong, who disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday, said the governor assured residents and visitors of the state of his commitment to their safety and security.