Liberia: Victim Whose Womanhood Was Sealed with Superglue Goes Against Prosecution of Perpetrator

MONROVIA – Months after having her private part super glued by her jealous boyfriend, a Liberian woman, 22, is preventing her boyfriend from being prosecuted.

It’s a tale of survival as the victim is said to be pregnant for eight months, and the Sinoe County Attorney, Daniel T. Dweh, told FrontPageAfrica since he returned to the county for the February Term of Court, the victim has been complaining that she doesn’t want her boyfriend to be prosecuted.

“If my husband is convicted and sentenced who would take care of me and my unborn baby?

Ahead of her boyfriend’s appearance in Court, the victim is said to have recovered and surviving from the sale of plantain and banana and using the proceeds to provide food for her detained boyfriend. “I have been selling plantain and other food stuffs to feed my boyfriend in prison,” she said.

It’s a decision that has shocked many, including justice actors and civil society activists alike.

Attorney Dweh disclosed that victim has boldly informed him that she won’t appear in court to testify against her boyfriend.

According to Attorney Dweh, after her pronouncement of not appearing in court to testify against her boyfriend, he immediately called right activists including the gender coordinator to inform them about what the survivor has told him.

The defendant was indicted during the November A.D. 2021 Term of Court by the grand jurors of Sinoe County on multiple offenses ranging from criminal attempt to commit murder, rape and aggravated assault.

Attorney Dweh revealed that the matter was assigned for March 7,2021 to commence trial, but base on what the survivor has said, it may not be possible.

The cruel act against the survivor led the office of the Vice President Jewel Howard-Taylor to issue a press statement against the act.

Meanwhile, Attorney Dweh said they are still making efforts to convince the victim to have the case go to trial.

It was disclosed that the 22-year-old woman was in critical condition at the F.J. Grant Hospital in the southeastern city of Greenville, Sinoe County, after her private part was damaged by her boyfriend who poured super glue in it in October of last year.

The man, Joe M. Winnie, 30, has admitted commission of the act, saying his action was predicated after his girlfriend refused him sex because she “was tired” after a hard day’s work.

He committed the act while his girlfriend was asleep. “My boyfriend, Joe, surprised me. I told him I was tired and he still went on forcing me,” the victim told journalists after the incident.

Police charged the perpetrator with multiple crimes. The incident happened  recently in Money Camp in Jladae Statutory District # with charges ranging from Rape, Criminal Attempt to Commit Murder, Terroristic Threat and Aggravated Assault.

According to the Gender Coordinator in Sinoe County, Julie Teteh, said the victim’s condition is going from bad to worse due to lack of drugs.

Mrs. Teteh added that nurses usually do the prescriptions and give to the victim to buy the drugs outside the hospital before being treated, something that is “seriously challenging for the victim”.

She noted that on Friday, October 15, 2021, she was the one who had to purchase drugs for the victim from her own pocket.

The Sinoe County Gender Coordinator added that the victim needs to be transferred to Monrovia, due lack of drugs at the F.J. Grant Hospital in Greenville.

Mrs. Teteh narrated that she reported the matter to her central office– the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection in Monrovia.

In a mobile phone interview with FrontPageAfrica, the Sinoe County Gender Coordinator said that the defendant first used caustic in the his girlfriend’s private part with rubber pump.

She said because the super glue sealed the victim’s private, the caustic could not flow down.

Women groups condemn act

But several women groups in the county have condemned the act meted out by Defendant Winnie, promising to follow this case to its logical conclusion.

Some of the groups are the National Institute for Public Opinion (NiPO), Southeastern women Development Association (SoWODA) and Sinoe women.

The women groups are also demanding that the case be transferred from Sinoe County to another county as it was done with other similar cases in the past.