The price of my life
Tina arrived in town of Chatou at the house of Godwin Okpara, a defender at Paris Saint Germain football club, in 2001. She was 13. Officially, it was an adoption. Godwin Okpara and his wife Linda had promised the little girl's father that she would be educated in France.
But Tina's life had a price: 375 Euro. That is how much the football star gave her father in order to take Tina away. In reality, not only did the little girl not attent school, but she was exploited and huliliated all day long. At night she slept in a room in the basement on a mattress.
One day in 2004, making the most of his wife's absence, the footballer raped Tina for the first time. He abused her for months, until the day he was caught in the act by his wife. Linda Okpara blamed Tina and locked the girl in a room, shaved her, burned her with cigarettes, and worse.
Convinced thaht she would die at the hands of her torturers, Tina fled to the streets. A woman took her under her wing and called the police.
Arrested, the Okparas were sentenced to 10 and 15 years in prison.
Authors:
Tina Okpara is a survivor. Miraculous. Between the ages of 13 and 17 she was imprisoned, battered and tortured in a villa in Yvelines, to the West of Paris. One of her tortures was none other than a professional footballer from the Paris Saint Germain team.
Cyril Guinet is a journalist.
Publication date: September 2010
Pages: 244
Rights sold: Poland, Greek, English (worldwide)
