SEXUAL ABUSE, TORTURE AND CONSEQUENCES: The story of Godwin Okpara, former player of the Paris Saint-Germain

MINOR, ADOPTED INTO A FAMILY, ADOPTED FATHER CONSTANTLY RAPED HER, ADOPTED MOTHER TORTURED AND PHYSICALLY MUTILATED HER..UNTIL SHE FELL INTO A STATE OF FUGUE...Fugue: a disturbed state of consciousness in which the one affected seems to perform acts in full awareness but upon recovery cannot recollect the acts performed..

Rape is an emotive topic for me.I do not understand rape 'humour'. No one 'deserves' to be raped. I agree that there may be people who have been abused and have taken that form as abuse as the norm. Rape is not normal. It is not any man's entitlement or birthright to rape any woman under his roof. If she is an adult and said no to any sexual intimacy, then assume she MEANS it and leave her alone. If she is a minor and have been groomed to say yes to child abuse, you deserve to be castrated.

As far as I am concerned Nigeria does not recognise Rape as a crime. And this attitude is carried on by certain Nigerian immigrants to more civilised climes. Luckily within the system they have migrated to, they are often caught and the full justice of the law is meted out to the rapists.

BBC online reported in 2008: Nigerian former football international Godwin Okpara faces 10 years in a French jail for the rape, torture and enslavement of his adopted daughter.

His wife Linda was sentenced to 15 years. The couple had denied all the charges against them. They are expected to appeal against the sentences.

The court heard that the abuse was carried out at the family home in Chatou, west of Paris.

The adopted daughter had arrived in France as a young girl in 2000.

Okpara, 35, admitted to having sex with the adopted daughter, then 13, on one occasion in 2005. But he said it was at her instigation.

The daughter testified in court that it was after discovering the pair together that Linda Okpara, 42, began mistreating her - torturing her and subjecting her to cruel sexual acts.

The adopted daughter's name is Tina Okpara, her family name is Tina Omaku. She finally wrote her experiences in a book..
Please support her, buy, read, learn from Ma vie a un prix [Broché] Tina Okpara (Auteur), Cyril Guinet (Auteur) also available on amazon.com as My Life Has a Price by Tina Opara.

She was interviewed by French Newsjournal, Lexpress, obviously in French language. I used the google translate feature to get it in English. Google Translate is not 100% perfect. ..Excerpts:

THE VICTIM: Tina was adopted in Nigeria at the age of 12 years by Godwin Okpara, former player of the Paris Saint-Germain. She published a book titled 'My life has a price' (Michel Lafon), describing the terrifying story of four years of barbaric prison.

In 2001, Tina was 12 years old when she lost her mother died in childbirth. His father, Simon wants to offer him a "better future." February 11, his daughter went to France to join the family of a man whom he has confidence, Godwin Okpara, Nigerian professional player of the Paris Saint-Germain.

Tina does not yet know the tragedies that await ...

For the family of football will be their "adopted" her slave girl. Tina works full time four young children of the couple running the household chores and sleeping on a mattress in the basement. She is deprived of all, friends, school, freedom. His "adoptive" mother, Linda, humiliates, violent and torture. The year of his 15 years, his new father, Godwin, viola for the first time. He will do daily, several times a day.

August 13, 2005, Tina finally managed to find refuge with neighbors. Three years later, Okpara respectively convicted by the court of appeal of the Hauts-de-Seine 15 and 10 years in prison for "rape, torture and enslavement." Today, the same nightmares haunt yet.

Four years after the end of your nightmare, why did you decide to write your story?

In 2007, while the trial of my foster parents had started, I had offered to tell all in a book. At the time, it was too early. I wanted to forget and have a normal life, like all people my age. Today, I need to talk. Even if to give courage to those who suffer or have suffered similar abuse. To show them that they must always fight and believe in the future.

Upon arrival at the Okpara, when did you realize that you not only would their "adopted daughter"?

Not just yet ... The first six months I kept hoping that the situation will change. Linda Okpara promised me that I will be educated during the next school year. I thought that once in school, I would not have to perform all domestic tasks she assigned me. And we moved. I realized that there was nothing for me in this new home. No room, no binder or school supplies. When I found myself at almost 13 years, lying on my mattress in the basement, I finally understood what was going to be my role.

You write in your school how you also missed more than freedom book?

Nothing makes me more pain than not being in school. That was why my father had allowed me to move with the Okparas to France. He knew that the Okpara family could afford to give me what he could not offer me, education and a future. My dream was to become a nurse. If I had been at school, maybe I would have been able to achieve.

In addition to the violence and daily humiliations that Linda Okpara makes you suffer, her husband started sexually abusing you when you were 15 years old ...

I did not think at all that this could happen. Godwin Okpara was someone I respected a lot and that my father had confidence. It is his family that my parents knew and not Linda. In addition, he was always nice to me, even if he closed his eyes to what his wife made me suffer. But the rapes began two years after my arrival in France. They then became daily. One day I asked him: "There are plenty of other girls, why me?" He told me that I was at home and outside, there was disease.

A fugue led you to the police. The police did not listen to you and summon your alleged adoptive parents. How did you feel?

I feel empty and betrayed me. At this time, I understand that my ordeal will start. When the police realized that I was the family of footballer Godwin Okpara, they did not listen. They did not even try to understand the reasons for my flight or the circumstances in which I lived. They seemed to have a certain admiration for my adoptive father and could not imagine that a person known to do such a thing.

Why not run away sooner or try your luck several times?

I knew no one. I was not allowed out except to go shopping or accompany children to school. I had to run. I had a very strict time schedule. If I do not respect, I expose myself to violence Linda. And we lived in a suburban neighborhood. It was every home. In addition, at the time, I did not speak French.

Is the day of "liberation", as you described it yourself in your book. You run away again. Neighbors come to help you. Was that when you realize that your ordeal ends?

That day, the neighbors called the police. I do not want them to do so: I was afraid of being betrayed again. But this time, the police appeared determined to investigate. One of them told me that it was his last day of work and he would not go on vacation as I will not be safe. Then they accompanied me home to get my passport and have stood up to my Godwin Okpara. There, I realized that my nightmare ended.

In 2006, when the first trial ends your tormentors, you state at the hearing: "I do not want to see ... but I do not want them to go to jail because of me." Why?

I am relieved and reassured to never have to deal with them. But one fear remains. At the time, my father was still alive. I do not want my family in Nigeria suffer retaliation because of me. Okpara were the famous people in my country. I thought they could easily pay someone to hurt my own family. And anyway, the fact that they are in prison will never erase the humiliation, beatings and rape.

During all these years, you have never ceased to write your diary, on books that you find in the house. Writing has helped you overcome this terrifying ordeal?

These books were my only friends! I could tell their everything I lived to tell the demons that were my adoptive parents. Alone did not cut me off and let me express myself. They helped me a lot.
I think about every day when I wake up and I look in the mirror. When my adoptive mother caught her husband raping me, she tortured me for revenge. Using a razor, she mutilated my vagina. She told me she was going to inflict on me a scar that I would remember all the days of my life. She was not mistaken.

In the last sentence of your book, you express the desire for a challenge, that of being a woman like any other. Today, do you think you have achieved that?

Roughly, I think. I love my job. I take care of elderly. I missed so much love and affection that I want to give to others. But I still live in a home for young workers. My goal is to succeed in having my own apartment, my own family. Above all, France has helped me through horrific times. So, I hope to someday get the French nationality. This would allow me to reuse the name of my real father, Omaku. I am ashamed to be still that of Okpara"

In August 2005, Godwin Okpara was arrested by French police on charges of raping his 13 year-old adopted daughter. He was found guilty and imprisoned in June 2007 for 10 years. His wife, Linda Okpara, accused of torture on the same person has been condemned to 15 years in jail. After the arrest of Godwin and Linda, their 4 children were placed in seperate foster care



by Franck Berteau, published 13/09/2010 at 14:00