Boyo, who lamented how she was forcefully evicted after being detained for over four hours by Ms Jerry, said that she and Ogundare who published a story about her ordeal in the hands of Ms Jerry had been invited for questioning by NCPWD.
The National Commission for Persons With Disabilities (NCPWD), has been accused of deviating from defending the rights of persons with disabilities to backing Grace Jerry, the founder and Executive Director of the Inclusive Friends Association (IFA), who allegedly victimised her visually impaired tenant and a visually impaired journalist.
Grace Jerry who founded Inclusive Friends Association, a woman-led non-profit and non-governmental organisation for the inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities (PWD), was accused of using her influence and power to get NCPWD to her side to victimise her 24-year-old visually impaired female tenant, Oluwamayowa Eleanora Boyo and a visually impaired journalist and publisher of Equality Online Reporters, Gbenga Ogundare.
Boyo, who lamented how she was forcefully evicted after being detained for over four hours by Ms Jerry, said that she and Ogundare who published a story about her ordeal in the hands of Ms Jerry had been invited for questioning by NCPWD.
She said that the invitation followed a petition filed before the commission by Ms Jerry, accusing her and Ogundare of defamation.
Boyo, who narrated her ordeal to SaharaReporters, alleged that Jerry whom she worked for in her organisation as a youth corps member, on April 1, forcefully evicted her from her Boys’ Quarter apartment despite still having 45 days left on her rent.
Boyo also alleged that Jerry unlawfully detained her in her compound for 4 hours and 35 mins.
According to her, between May 2022 and March 2023, she served as a National Youth Service Corps staff member of Jerry Inclusive Friends Association, during which she was given free accommodation.
“I became a paying tenant in May 2023. I paid the sum of N450,000 to cover security, electricity, generator power supply from her house to the Boys’ Quarters, water bill and waste collection.
“However, in August 2023 after I resigned from the Inclusive Friends Association, I was cut off from the generator and power supply without any warning from Ms Jerry. I had to buy a generator to power my house,” Boyo said.
She said on April 1 this year, she decided to move out to a new apartment.
Explaining further, Boyo said, “At around 7:15 am, my carpenter arrived to remove my wooden connections. At around 8 am, my electricians arrived to disconnect all my electrical connections. By 9 am, my movers and cleaner arrived and moved my belongings into the moving van.
“While that was going on, Elisha, the house security guard, came to my apartment to see what was going on. I asked if Grace Jerry was at home and he said yes. He asked if I was going to let her know I was leaving, and I said yes. He also said he wouldn't let me leave the compound until I talked to her.”
Boyo said she informed Jerry that she was moving most of her belongings and she said no problems but asked when she would move the remaining items, which Boyo said would be done towards the end of April.
“She told me to make sure I inform her when I do, so she can do a final inspection of the house for damages, I said ‘okay, I will call ahead to confirm your availability before I come.’ I left her apartment and went to tell the movers to start going; this was around 10 am.”
However, Boyo said that before she could move, Jerry sent the security guard and another man who identified himself as Jerry's brother, to inspect the apartment. However, Boyo said she refused and insisted that it was “still my personal space and I'm not comfortable with them moving around my personal space”.
“I went to meet Ms Jerry in her living room and told her I'm not comfortable with that and I would appreciate it if it doesn't happen.
“She told me it would only take a few minutes and that I should just allow them to go through the apartment. I really didn't want that to happen but her parents who were sitting in the living room told me to just allow it to happen and I agreed.
“Her brother and the security went through the apartment and saw that it was empty and reported back to her. She told me to hand over the keys but I said no because I still had my rent running and I wanted to have access to the house but she told me she would not allow me to leave the house if I did not hand over the keys.
“I told her that was wrong because I still had my rent running but she told me I must return the keys to her and I refused.”
Boyo said after some back and forth, she handed over the keys to her and “I said that everything she has caused me in the last two years of living in her house, I wish upon her.
“After I said this, she said she was going to teach me a lesson and said something to the security guard in Hausa which I did not understand. After that, the security guard went to the gate and padlocked it, showing us that we were detained in the house.”
Boyo said she went to Jerry and asked her to let her (Boyo) leave the house but she refused. The neighbors tried to intervene but she didn't agree but insisted that she would teach Boyo a lesson.
Boyo said, “This back and forth went on for about two more hours. I went back into her house to speak to her but her parents said she has locked herself in the room. I tried communicating with her through her room window but she didn't answer.
“After about two hours, around 12pm, three of my neighbors' cars drove out of the compound but they kept us locked inside immediately after the cars drove out.
“While the second car was driving out, we tried to also drive out but we were stopped by two policemen with guns. One of them said he would shoot me and there would be no consequences.”
Boyo said she and her friend were released after the intervention of her uncle but that while they were waiting for her uncle, “my friend made a joke about making a video of us being held hostage, but Ms Jerry reacted from her window saying she dared us to post the video".
“My friend and I decided to go and speak to the policemen in the estate to ask what she told them to detain us for and what they could do to assist us in the situation.
“They said she called them immediately she noticed we had movers and artisans in the compound and said her tenant was attempting to move out of the house without her consent and they should not let us go until she told them it was okay.
“After about four hours of being detained and the movers had started threatening to offload our things and leave, my uncle came from Lugbe and went into her house alone at first. After a few minutes, they asked me to come in and my uncle asked me to go on my knees to apologise to her.
“She (Ms Jerry) screamed at me, told me to kneel upright. She said if it was not for the sake of my uncle, she was going to get a cane and flog my friend and me. She told me she was going to crush me and could finish me and send me away from Abuja. She said she had the power to do it but wouldn't do it because she's a good person.
“She cursed me by saying that it was finished for me which I rejected by tweaking my fingers over my head and by 15 minutes to 3:00 pm, she finally let the moving truck out of the compound. This was after about 4 hours and 45 minutes of Ms Grace Jerry holding me against my will.”
Speaking with SaharaReporters, Ogundare accused Ms Jerry of victimising for alleged defamation over the stories he published on Boyo’s case titled “IFA Grace Jerry Tramples VAPP Act, Abuses Blind Female Tenant” and “NCPWD Betrays Mission, Colludes with Grace Jerry to Victimize Blind Nigerians”.
Ms Jerry alleged that Ogundare made publications that defamed her, the virtually impaired journalist told SaharaReporters that he made several efforts for days to speak with Ms Jerry and get her comments on the matter but she never responded to questions sent to her on WhatsApp and email.
He said, “Rather, she started asking people to pressure me to forget about publishing the story. She even went as far as asking the relatives of the victim to stop me. I couldn't do such a dastardly thing to a young lady who was already traumatised by her experience in the custody of Grace.
“So after a thorough verification engagement in which my organisation sought evidence from the victim's uncle who had to rush to Grace Jerry's residence to bail out the victim and her friend who were detained and being harassed by a gun-toting police officer, I was left with no other option but to publish the story, taking into consideration the input and advice of lawyers we spoke with.”
Ogundare said that after publishing the first story, there was a “disclaimer by the board of Inclusive Friends Association on X in which they tried to play down the issue and took side with Grace”.
He said, “That led me to publish another follow-up that triggered Grace to unleash stakeholders in the community on me again. I insisted to one of those people she sent to tell her to respond to our questions and we will be happy to give her a space to defend herself.
“After a whole lot of back and forth, she was forced to call me and I told her she was free to respond to my questions, but she told me she was not comfortable talking to me on the phone. I then told her she could do a voice note to answer my questions, but again she said no.
“Then she requested that I come see her in Abuja to talk to her. I told her it was impossible for me to do so because it is strange that a news source would summon a journalist to her office when she could say all she wanted to say via phone.
“Then she offered to foot the transportation logistics. At that point, I became livid. Apparently, she thought she could lure me with money since I am just a blind journalist. And that was how she went to the NCPWD to help her scapegoat me.”
Ogundare said that he felt depressed that “Grace Jerry hates me and the community she claims to be serving as an advocate,” adding that “I even became more worried that someone who leads a disability rights-based NGO will think of scapegoating a blind journalist like me because I dare to expose the fact of her violence against her ex-blind staff member and tenant.”
He however noted that though Ms Jerry did not threaten him verbally, “I felt threatened by the sheer number of stakeholders in the disability community she unleashed on me before and after I published the first story which detailed the gripping encounter between her and Eleanora Boyo, the blind lady she detained.
“More especially, I felt threatened by the sheer conspiracy that enabled Grace Jerry to enlist the collusion of the National Commission for Persons With Disabilities in Nigeria to summon me for a trial based on a petition written by Grace where she alleged defamation.
“I thought only people who don't have any slice of formal education will not know that you don't try a defamation allegation in a disability agency.”
When SaharaReporters contacted Ms Jerry, she said everything Boyo said was a lie.
She said, “All that has been said by Mayowa and the people she is working with are all allegations. Yes, the commission is currently investigating it.”
Ms Jerry noted that the disability law mandates the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities to investigate and prosecute issues that centre around disability discrimination and related issues.
She said, “When these whole allegations arose, I had to draw the attention of the commission to what was happening because they already, together with Equality Reporters, that is Gbenga Ogundare, were already publishing a lot of allegations about me, and it was defamatory.
“So I quickly drew the attention of the National Commission for Persons with Disabilities to it, calling them to please investigate the matter.
“As I speak with you, the investigation is ongoing because I have been called in to be interviewed and I want to believe that Mayowa, that is Eleanora, either she has been called in or she will be called in because the commission was going to conduct an all-round investigation.
“The investigation will be published and shared with all partners and organisations that are involved or interested; because Mayowa and her Equality Reporters have gone ahead to spread it, even within partners and donors.
“The commission is working to ensure that they come out with a report that will be shared with all relevant parties.
“Also, their lawyer, one Justice Christopher, has reached out to me, showing they have involved a lawyer, and for that, I think they are also taking the route of the court, from the letter the lawyer sent to me.
“They are already working and the commission is already working. Let us all wait for the investigation that is being carried out by the commission, because I am also interested to know what the findings will be.
“Donor organisations which Equality Reporters has reported to are also interested in knowing the outcome. I have also pleaded with other media organisations that have reached out to me to give us, or rather give the commission time to put together their report and their findings.”
She further stated that the commission assured her it would organise a press conference to discuss its investigation.
SaharaReporters also contacted NCPWD through the compliance Officer II, Akor Justina, who signed the invitation letter the commission sent to Boyo and Ogundare for questioning over Ms Jerry’s petition, but she said she was not in a position to speak on the matter.
“I’m just working in the commission and the office is a government parastatal, so I just informed my boss.
“So if there is anything you want the commission to do please you can come over and make it official,” Justina said in her response to a WhatsApp message sent to her.