Comfort’s stepdad, Sunday James, 61, according to a police case filed before a Lafia Upper Area Court, splashed on her in May 2008, in Akwanga, after a pastor claimed that the teenager was responsible for many deaths in the family. Comfort’s father was arrested in 2008, after the incident, but freed days later. He continued to walk free until in December, 2010, almost two years later, when the Legal Aid Council (LAC) put pressure on the police to prosecute him and get justice for the acid-bath victim. He is now facing trial over alleged Grievous Hurt and has been remanded in prison custody, set free again in December 2010.

The acid damaged Comfort’s respiratory system as her facial features were severely affected. She breathes through her mouth only, with great difficulty and in much pain. The chemical washed her forehead down, and the area between the forehead and the lips has completely disfigured, with black mounds rising up between the eye regions, almost covering her sight.

The chemical did massive damage not only to her face. It poured down to her chest, where she is now left with mounds around the breast region, her shoulders, and back. Her left breast was affected most: the nipple now hangs close to the armpit after it was dragged there by the corrosive substance.

It is now a year since the NAPTIP conference and Comfort is now fifteen-years-old. The agency promised to take up the matter, as did NHRC. Both authorities have exchanged correspondences with Better Leven, the NGO giving care to Comfort, between 2010, and now. The NGO has also raised letters, seeking the support of Nasarawa State Government through the Women Affairs Ministry and other governmental bodies including the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Development. But Comfort is still waiting, guessing when and where the help will come from.

She has lost many things. She was on her first year in secondary school when she was attacked. Now, she has lost her education. She is facing the same experience from friends and relatives. Her friends have gone because they cannot take her along with those grotesque features. Her relatives now treat her like an outcast, one of the issues raised in the court when her father was arraigned there. For other family members, she is the witch the pastor had pronounced, and must be avoided. The only child of her late mother, Comfort lost her mother as a toddler at five. She grew up in pains, records from the NGO has shown. She grew up between her father’s second wife, and an aunty. “There were times she went to bed with an empty stomach”, Tashi A. Tashi, the executive director of Better Leven said.

But Comfort told Weekly Trust during a visit to Akwanga, Thursday, that she’s not losing hope. “I know God will not forget me. If man does not remember me, God will. If man is not there for me, God is.” She spoke in Hausa, with great effort, hiding her face. Meanwhile, Better Leven, acting on promises from NAPTIP, NHRC, the women affairs ministry in Abuja, some governors’ wives and politicians, went ahead and obtained a cost estimate from the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), on January 14, this year. The cost estimate states that Comfort is suffering from “multiple exuberant scars involving the face, upper trunk and upper limbs”, and will require not less than five surgical procedures. It will cost the teenager N1,795,000 to access the surgical operation at JUTH. In all, the NGO said it will require N2.7 million for the JUTH operation; showing an additional N1 million to cater for what they say is for “pre-surgery, and post surgery” bills.

But there are other options for Comfort to get the surgery done. Open Society Justice Initiative, an NGO which had contacted Better Leven on the issue, was trying to raise the issue to fly her abroad, either to the US, or India, where she can get her face and other affected parts of the body back. This is yet to materialize. Tashi told Weekly Trust, saying Better Leven is making do with the JUTH option for now since the cost of such surgeries abroad is far beyond its reach.

The Ministry of Women Affairs gave a nod to assist, but it would not even foot half of that bill. Out of the five procedures required for the surgery, the ministry agreed to pay for only one, representing N350,000.

A recent letter by the Director Women Affairs, Mrs. E.O. Adeyemi stated that: “The ministry has approved the sum of N350,000 to support one of the five procedures of the acid bath victim, Sunday Comfort, who is expected to undergo surgery.” However, officials there have continued to issue fresh instructions over the modalities to access the assistance. Tashi said the NGO is working hard to comply with all the directives of the federal ministry.

Comfort had stayed with Tashi since the incident, after she was allegedly thrown out of the house by her father. She returned to the family house after the court had ordered her father to contribute to her medical treatment and upkeep. While the case was on, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the police picked up another investigation on one Alexander Sunday, Comfort’s half-brother. Alexander, 22, was detained in January after he was arrested by the police in Akwanga for allegedly poisoning Comfort’s food at the family residence along Mai-Doki Street, after she returned there. State police spokesman, ASP Richard Akoji had confirmed the incident, and the arrest of Alexander.

Meanwhile, Comfort told Weekly Trust that even if she doesn’t have a face, “I have my brain intact. I will do well. I will prove that once I return to school, by God’s grace.”