Who can tell the outcome between a man and a woman who are lovers? Only God knows.
Kate was my best friend; we went to the same primary school and secondary school. We met Ogar, who later became Kate’s boyfriend on the same day. We were still in SS3 then and we were both 16 years old. We met him when we went to repair a hairdryer at the market.
My aunty owns a salon, she asked me to help her give the dryer to a repair man whose shop was close to my school. So Kate followed me and both of us saw Ogar at the shop. He came to collect something from the repairer. I can’t remember what he came for.
He began to toast Kate, telling her he likes her hair, that her hair is still virgin hair and that he likes girls who have not used chemicals to spoil their hair. He was just not my type, because my own hair is permed, though I had weaving on that time, school did not permit us to carry our permed hair. I was just asking myself, who is this one that is condemning permed hair. Who does he think he is?
But I saw Kate already liked him. She was just smiling and staring at him as if he was something special. I wasn’t interested in him because he was not tall. He was just about my height and I am 5 feet 5 or so. Me, I like very tall men.
That’s how they started. He gave Kate his number and she too gave him her mother’s number, at that time neither of us had a phone but Kate used her mother’s phone to make calls, even me too, I used my mother’s phone for my calls.
After that, Kate will not let me hear word, Ogar this, Ogar that, in fact, I was very surprised. Later, later the relationship began to grow and Kate used to tell me that Ogar was asking for her virginity.
I told her that time; ‘Keep your virginity, o. If Ogar loves you, he should wait, we are still in school’.
After our NECO exams, Kate began to tell me again that Ogar was asking for her virginity. I said, ‘just be careful because I know this kind of thing can lead to pregnancy’.
So when the do happened, Kate told me. She said that they did it in Ogar’s room and that it was painful a little. I just said, ‘Oh, it doesn’t even show on your face that you are no longer a virgin’ and we both laughed.
She now began to use me to lie to her mother every time she visits Ogar; she’ll tell the mother she is going somewhere with me but she will be in Ogar’s place.
I always warned her, ‘This Ogar is not a good person, he wants to useless you and he will dump you. He himself did not even finish university, so what can he do for you?’
Then one day, Kate came to my room to tell me she thinks she is pregnant. I said, ‘Ha! I’m dead!’
I have never been so scared in my life. The following day, we told my aunty, that one said, ‘When last did you see your menses?’
Kate did not know.
So my aunty took us to a scan place, where they did a scan. You won’t believe it, Kate was already three months pregnant!
I said my mother will kill me, she would think I was also pregnant, because she knows how close I am to Kate; but Kate said ‘Ogar will take care of me.’
My aunty then said Kate will have to tell her parents, that she will not have a hand in this one. So me too, I told Kate, I don’t want trouble from my parents, go and tell your parents what has happened, I will follow you but you must talk.
But Kate begged me to go with her to Ogar’s house and tell him. So together, we went to tell Ogar, that, ‘See o, Kate is pregnant o and it’s three months and they said we cannot remove it, o.’
Hummn. When we told Ogar, he just changed!
He denied he was the one who made her pregnant; he told her to go and remove it if she knows what is good for her! Can you imagine this man’s wickedness?
Even me, my heart was just beating so fast. Kate was begging him, o. She was begging this mad man to help her but he told us to leave his house or he will beat us.
Fast, fast, I ran out and called Kate to come. When we got home, we called Ogar several times begging him but uh huhn, he said he was not the one who got her pregnant.
For more than one week, we were begging him; in that one week; Kate did not call any other name apart from Ogar…Ogar…Ogar…
The following week, I went with my mother to Makurdi, we went to see someone who will help me get admission to the polytechnic.
I came back to hear Kate was rushed to the hospital that afternoon but she had died; they said she vomited a lot but I knew she wanted to abort the pregnancy; I knew she could not imagine life without Ogar; I knew she took her life because Ogar rejected her, I just couldn’t tell anybody until police came for me that I was an accomplice.
-Compiled by Peju Akande.
