Nigerian Acid Attack Victim In London Cries For Help – “How Could Anyone Do This To Me”

Feb 2nd, 2013 – Nigerian Acid Attack Victim In London Cries For Help – “How Could Anyone Do This To Me”

The news that made headline yesterday was the horror story of a 20-year-old Nigerian lady by the name of Naomi Oni who works as an assistant manager at a Victoria secret store in London, UK. naijagists.com

Ms Naomi Oni, a Nigerian woman who was attacked with acid by a niqab wearing attacker on her way home in Dagenham, London on the 30th of December last year suffered serious facial burns.

Naomi Oni is currently pleading for help from the public and law enforcement officials in finding her attacker.

In a tell-it-all interview she granted to Evening Standard UK magazine, here is what Naomi Oni said:

‘I’d been working a late shift and was talking to my boyfriend about what we were going to do for New Year when I saw this Muslim woman wearing a niqab covering her face,’.

‘I thought it was a bit strange at that time of night, but she didn’t say anything and I kept on walking.

‘Then I felt a splash on my face. It burned and I screamed out. I started running and screaming, holding my face, all the way home. I didn’t look back.

‘I got home and I was screaming and banging on the door. I was hysterical. Luckily my godmother, who is a pharmacist, was at home with my mum and she helped me and kept dipping my face in water and trying to calm me down until the police and ambulance got there.

‘I was in shock. Saying: “Who would do that? Who would do that?” How could anyone do this?’.

Miss Oni decided to speak out after police failed to establish any motive behind the December 30 attack or identify a suspect.

She said the attack had ‘destroyed’ her life and left her too afraid to venture out or even show her face in public.

‘I look in the mirror and it just isn’t me. I’ll never look the same again,’ she said. ‘I’ve always been outgoing and confident in my job and in my personal life, used to getting attention for the way I dress or my hair, but now I don’t want anyone looking at me.

‘I don’t want people to see me in public. I don’t want to get the Tube or the bus. If I have to go to the hospital I take a taxi.

‘I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to go back to my job. I was planning to go to college in September to study media and fashion, but I don’t even know if I’ll be able to do that.’

The store assistant has been told she faces months if not years of skin grafts and further plastic surgery and even then is likely to be left with severe facial scarring.

She and her mother say they are too afraid to go back to their council flat in Dagenham. They are currently sleeping on a friend’s sofa-bed after turning down the offer to be rehoused in Tottenham on safety grounds.

‘Even with the support of my family and friends and boyfriend I feel very alone,’ she said. ‘Nothing is going to be same anymore.’ [Evening Standard UK]

Nigerian acid attack victim Naomi Oni is the sole caretaker of her 52-year-old disabled mother, Marian Yalekhue.

Hope her attacker will be brought to justice.

We wish her speedy recovery.