114-116 W. Lexington Street and 207 Park Avenue (Five & Dime Historic District) Request: Concept Review: Seven-story new construction and façade rehabilitation Applicant: Chukes Okoro

Northamptonshire Local Body trafficked the child out to him. One year the man spent grooming my child then took my child out of the country without my knowledge.

After one week he booted my child out as he planned to do. Next thing my child is cutting off her breasts and calling herself a man and is now in a hospital for the criminally insane. That never helps.

I will keep telling everybody how he raped his cousin when she was 14 and he was a grown man. The incest is from his mother’s side. Her mother expected her children to have sex with each other. His mother was raped by her elder brother. My grandmother expected me to do the same. My own grandmother sent my youngest uncle into my bed to have sex with me, and I refused. The second night he returned sent by my grandmother again.

I declined, and we had a fight. The next day my uncle (who is the same age as me) and I had a brawl in the yard. My grandmother knew I wouldn’t comply, so she sent me to live with her eldest son a barrister in Jos in Nigeria. For six months that uncle was always trying to have sex with me and when I refused, he returned me back to the village. Upon my return, I learnt my uncle was also having sex with his other sister from another mother. My grandfather had five wives. The villagers knew I got away because he booted me out so they opened up and shared the history.

I was sent to a boarding school where an aunty was the Principal. I was happy. One day I told the other girls why I would never sleep in my mother’s village again, asked them to help me run away so I could use the time to see Nigeria, and promised to take care of myself. One night they helped me climb over the school wall, when I got to the top, I looked down at the young women and with pure love we waved at each other, and then I jumped to the other side. I was gone (Years later I pumped into one fellow classmate in Forest Gate London when I was going to work. Love is good!)

Nobody saw me again for two years.

A van, filled with gifts and a goat, led the way, followed by a blue Mercedes carrying my future husband and I, chauffeur-driven, and then a Peugeot with some of his staff. As we made our way slowly along the track road to my grandfather’s compound, the villagers caught sight of me and began to shout, “Ngozi has returned!” Children chanted my name, running alongside the vehicles.

Next, we arrived and the crowd was so big my grandmother came out to see what the commotion was about. I stepped out of the car and my grandmother broke down crying saying she thought I had died but now she knows for sure my strength is so strong I will always be alright. After the overnight festivities we left and that was the last time I saw my grandmother. My grandmother was a Catholic and we were tight but I couldn’t do what she expected me to do, she married my grandfather when she was barely fifteen the same age I was when I was sent to live in Nigeria.

I encountered my future husband when I found and returned his friend’s lost wallet, intact. Stephen Lu regarded me with admiration, saying, “You are really special,” and handed me his card for any future assistance I might need. A year later, when the heel of my shoe broke, and my friend had to depart for her singing job on a cruise ship, leaving me in Aba, I recalled Stephen’s card had an Aba address. Upon arriving at the magnificent building listed, I stepped inside… and the rest is history.

I can never forgive those who have ruined my life, especially my child’s life. I will never tolerate anyone disrupting my peace after everything my child and I have endured. I have worked tirelessly to build a new life for us. I pursued education while Chukes did nothing in England. I was the beacon, yet this is the repayment I received: he shattered my only child’s life.

Trust me on this one, none of you are better than me. Indeed all of you would have crumbled when I turned adversity into an adventure.