Popular movie producer, Ifan Michael has spoken up about how he was sexually abused by his guardian at the age of 10.
Michael who also said he was said he was forced to leave Port Harcourt where his parents resided after they separated, recalled his traumatic upbringing during a chat with media entrepreneur, Chude Jideonwo.
He said that he first came to Enugu before proceeding to Lagos after a movie marketer promised him an opportunity, adding that when he got to Lagos, he had nowhere to stay when the said marketer became unreachable.
“This made me squat at a brothel with a call girl who had offered to take him under her wings,” he said. “I knew I was diving into an industry that is very tough and I’d have to push in.
He said that the lady who had a place in Surulere took him in because he was Igbo and after he had explained his situation to her.
“She felt she could take me under her wings,” he said. “Yes, I grew up in a brothel. She does her job in the morning and afternoon. “Most times, I slept late at night because she’s busy doing her stuff. She was good to me and had others she was also helping. I was with her for almost a year. Trying to find a home, I stayed with a man who sexually abused me.”
The movie producer said he later moved out of the brothel after Chidinma’s employers questioned her relationship with him, adding that he moved in with a barber, identified as Bros Ubi, who took him in but started abusing him sexually.
“Chidinma had started having some sort of harassment because she was lobbying me into her room after her day-to-day. It was looking like, ‘why are you having this boy here. He said.
Speaking further, he said “They started wondering if she was sleeping with me because I was younger and it was a brothel. I saw the emotional trauma she was getting for harbouring me. I thought it was best that I left. I met this movie marketer”.
Michael who also narrated how he was also thrown out at midnight for telling on his guardian, said he later fell victim to physical assault on the streets of Lagos where he passed the night in an experience that left his back scarred.
“He began to abuse me sexually, this was 2001 or 2002,” he said. “I couldn’t go back to my parents. They didn’t even know if I existed. How I left Bros Ubi was him accommodating a young girl, 17 or 18”.
The movie producer said that all those experiences shaped him into the man he had become today.
