Photos: Bakassi Refugee Father Uses Daughter As Collateral For N600k Bank Loan

A 12 year old girl has been used as collateral by her father, Edet Okon, to obtain loan, Punch reports.

Edet Okon, 40, and his family members along with 963 other families had fled their ancestral homes in Efut Obot Ikot in the ceded Bakassi Peninsula in March 2013. After having travelled by boat and foot over several kilometers to safety, they took shelter in two of the three blocks of classrooms at St. Mark Primary School, and another classroom block at Community Secondary School both in Akwa Ikot Eyo Edem, Akpabuyo Local Government Area of Cross River State...

Having lost everything, Okon, and others depended on relief materials from the Cross River State Government to survive but since September this year, relief materials, including food stuffs, have not been provided for the hundreds of displaced indigenes camped in the two schools.

Hence, Okon who lost his first daughter, Blessing, to the cold hands of death in September 2013, after battling with blood cancer for five months resorted to using his second daughter to raise funds for the series of medical tests, drugs, feeding and hospital bills incurred by Blessing. Since he had no property to guarantee the loan, Okon gave up his second daughter, Mary, as collateral to secure the sum of N600, 000 given to him in installments by a civil servant based in Calabar.

"I was desperate to save Blessing from dying. Her situation had become critical at that time. That was the only thing I could do to salvage the situation. I am heartbroken," Okon said, as his voice faded off, breaking down in tears.
"I don't know what came over me. It was sheer desperation I gave out my daughter so that the man would accept to give us the money."

Ufot

When the intermediary, Daniel Ufot, 59, who helped Okon to negotiate the N600, 000 loan from the creditor was visited at his home about five kilometres away from the camp, Mary was found in his residence. He explained that some plain-cloth security operatives keeping watch on the camp had asked him to bring Mary from Calabar to meet with her father who she had not seen in 19 months.

"I do not know Okon from Adam. But since I'm an expert in money lending, I offered to help him after having learnt of his predicament on how he had been battling to save the life of his daughter.

"But unfortunately, he could not provide any form of collateral to secure the loan. But the creditor, in his magnanimity, agreed to have his daughter as collateral since she was the only valuable 'thing'' he could offer," Ufot said.

The camp

Speaking on her ordeal, Mary, who was a junior secondary school 2 pupil before they left Bakassi in March, 2013, has since dropped out of school. She shared horrible tales of inhuman treatment in the hands of her father's creditor.

Every morning, Mary hawks bottle water on the streets of Calabar.

"The man my father is owing has three female children and some other relatives are also putting up with us in the house. They normally give me a revenue target of N1, 000 daily.

"And sometimes when the market is bad and I don't finish selling the water, they beat me up. They treat me very badly. I eat only once in a day and that is in the morning.
"I wash all their clothes, including the ladies' pants, and do other house chores, too. And if I hesitate on washing their pants, they get infuriated and throw objects at me at will. I will not feel happy if I go back there," she narrated.

Yet, Ufot insisted that he only brought Mary to meet with his father as a respite since he had not set his eyes on her for about 19 months.

"There are no signs that they would be repaying the loan. I only obeyed the instruction of the security men. She will be on her way back to the creditor's place in Calabar," Ufot said.

The Refugee Camp Leader, Etim Ene, confirmed on Monday that Mary has returned to the creditor in Calabar.

"Mary has been taken to the creditor's house in Calabar South. She was taken away by the guarantor, on December 2."

Efforts to trace the address of the creditor, whose name is given as Asuquo Etim, said to be living on Atimbo Road, Calabar South Local Government Area, was abortive. The creditor is said to be an employee of the Cross River State Urban Development Agency.

Culled from: Punc