Psychiatric patient allegedly raped by hospital staff missing

A 32-year-old psychiatric patient at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital Enugu, Miss Nzubechi Igwe has allegedly been raped by a staff of the hospital and subsequently declared missing with five months pregnancy.

The Medical Director of the hospital, Dr Ngozi Unogu, however, refused to make comment on the scandal despite being bombarded for response by newsmen.

Narrating the ordeal, the elder brother of the victim, Mr. Israel Igwe, said her young sister, Nzubechi, has been experiencing some psychiatric symptoms to which her family sought urgent medical attention at the hospital  and was admitted on August 9, 2024.

Israel said while her sister was at the hospital  he visited her often and was monitoring her  progression and providing the necessary things that were required.

He said: “One night while my  sister was within the hospital premises, one security man at the hospital accosted her, lured her to a corner, in threatening violence and had non-consensual sexual intercourse with her.

“At the earliest opportunity, my sister reported the matter to the management  of the Neuropsychiatric hospital, Enugu for their intervention. But despite the said complaint by my sister, there was a brazen apathy to investigate the incident case of  rape, culminating  in pregnancy.

“I was not in any way informed and did not know about the ugly incident up until the second  trimester of the pregnancy when I was advised by a staff  at the hospital to conduct a pregnancy test on my sister.

“The pregnancy test was thereafter conducted and the result came out positive. At the moment, my sister is about five months pregnant. The pregnancy test  result is intact and can be made available if the need be.”

Igwe disclosed that in a strange twist of event, on January 15, 2025, he received a call from the hospital informing him that his sister was missing and that his presence was urgently needed at the hospital.

“When I got to the hospital, they gave  me the hospital bill  and informed me that they do not know my sister’s whereabouts. We have searched every nook and cranny of both my home State (Abia) and Enugu State but she is nowhere to be found.All the entreaties made to the hospital management to give any reasonable account as to my sister’s whereabouts proved futile."

 It is discernable from the background that the life of my sister is in imminent danger.

“We sincerely believe as a family that the hospital has a duty of care in the circumstances and under no guise should they pass the buck to anyone else. It is indeed a helpless situation and I am calling on all the relevant Departments and Agencies, security agents, the press, and well-meaning Nigerians to kindly rise to this occasion and save my poor sister from being lynched untimely.

“We therefore humbly urge that you explore all the options within the ambit of the law to give this matter the necessary visibility for justice to be done,” Igwe pleaded.