Backstreet abortion: How ‘Egusi Aije’ ruins lives, destroys women’s future in Ogun

In the quiescent corners of Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, a bitter concealed is cutting abbreviated the lives of some young and aged hopeless women.

To the casual observer, ‘Egusi ai je’ is simply a wild, bitter melon crawling crossed the ungraded but to others, it has been whispered astir successful debased tones arsenic an ancestral ‘remedy’ for unwanted pregnancies.

It is not a caller trend; it is an entrenched ancestral practice, a substance not brewed oregon swallowed, but inserted into the vagina.

For 35-year-old Ashabi (not existent name) a nonmigratory successful the Abeokuta South section authorities country of the state, this herbal gamble proved to beryllium a fatal mistake, turning a backstage situation into a nationalist calamity and leaving her household to mourn a beingness chopped short.

The parent of 3 wasn’t caller to it arsenic it had ever been her harmless haven until the precise time it claimed her life. 

According to her younger sister who spoke nether anonymity, Ashabi near it excessively agelong successful her, starring to the disruption of her intestines and past her death.

“If it stays agelong successful your body, it tin get to your tummy a...