Tears streamed down the face of 31-year-old Blessing (not real name) as she narrated how her whirlwind romance with a 67-year-old Irish construction worker in Lagos, ended in her getting infected with HIV.
For Blessing, her pain was not just because she had got the virus but that the man, she identified simply as Jim, even intensified his sexual intercourse with her after he learnt of his status more than two years ago.
Blessing walked into the Area F Police Command, Ikeja on Thursday, inconsolable to report Jim’s alleged action.
When she faced journalists on Friday, however, things took a dramatic turn as she screamed at reporters and shielded the man she had accused from being interviewed and photographed.
“You see what you have done now? We could have settled this at home,” she was heard telling the man, who also became furious and lashed out at reporters.
“Jackass, liars. Get out of here,” the Irish man told journalists.
When the scene calmed down somewhat, Blessing launched into a narration of a romance, which she said later devastated her.
She said, “We have been dating for some years. I work as a real estate agent, while he works with a construction company.
“In January 2014, he became ill. He was always sweating and running temperature. So, I accompanied him to see his doctor in a hospital in Ikeja. He was given treatment for malaria but the hospital also ran some tests and usually, they run HIV tests without telling the patient just to be sure.
“When the result came out, we went to see the doctor. I heard the man asking him if I was his sex partner but he said no. The man also asked if he could speak with him in my presence, he said no. When we left, he was given some drugs, which he hid from me.
“Any time he wanted to take the drug, he hid it. Then one day, I caught him taking the same drug. I asked him what it was for and he said it was for a recurrent leg pain he was getting. I wrote down the name of the drug and searched for it on Google. That was when I learnt that it was anti-retroviral drug used for HIV.
“I confronted Jim and asked if he had HIV, he denied it flatly. I then told him to give me his doctor’s number so that I could confirm myself. He said no. While he was sleeping, I took his doctor’s number from his phone and called the man. The doctor told me that he could not speak on the phone and said I should come and see him. When I went there, he broke the news to me that Jim was HIV positive. He then decided to run a test on me. It confirmed that I was HIV positive. I felt like dying.
“I was so angry because he deliberately infected me. I know this because he protected his family. Around the time we went to the doctor together, he sent his wife abroad to ensure she did not contract the virus. But in my case, the sex even intensified that I was happy that he was falling in love with me more every day.”
