■ Victim delivers baby ■ Father remanded in prison
A father from hell, 42-year-old Segun (surname withheld) who allegedly impregnated his only daughter (name withheld), a 16-year-old JSS 2 student in Igbeti, Oyo State is now in prison custody for committing the abominable act.
It was gathered that the sordid story began on December 1, 2013 at Gboro compound, Igbeti, when the suspect was said to have asked the victim to come and live with him. Thirteen years earlier, he had divorced the mother of the victim, who was about three then. After the divorce, the mother took custody of the victim and then remarried. Much later, the victim began living with her father.
Continuing the tale, Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Mr Kola Sodipo revealed that on the fateful night, Segun demanded that the victim should undress. She refused and attempted to escape. He threatened her with a cutlass and then raped her, unconcerned about the excruciating pain she felt, being a virgin.
The evil father continued the sordid deed thereafter, and this prompted the girl to report to her stepmother who lived in a different house but she didn’t take the matter seriously due to the shameful nature of the act.
Recounting how her ordeal started and what transpired after, the victim told Sunday Sun: “I was living with my mother until 2013 when my father asked me to come and live with him. On December 25, 2013 my father woke me up and asked me to remove my clothes but I refused. He drew a cutlass and threatened to kill me if I didn’t do his bidding. I removed my clothes and he forcefully had sex with me. He was the first man to sleep with me because I had never had sex before then. I reported the ugly incident to one of his two wives who is a nurse and she promised to ask him but I don’t know whether she asked him or not.
“In March 2014, he did the same thing again and I ran to the house of his second wife and reported to her. She asked me to swear to an oath with the Bible but I refused since I knew I was speaking the truth. I started sleeping in her apartment. In April, he came and asked me to return to his apartment to do some things for him but I refused to go. His second wife, however, put pressure on me to answer my father’s call as he wanted me to do some things for him at home. I followed him after much pressure.
“During Easter celebration on April 18, 2014 he had sex with me again. All this while I didn’t know I was pregnant because I had my last menstruation in December 2013. My stepmother suspected that I was pregnant and took me to a clinic at Igbeti where a test showed I was pregnant.”
Sunday Sun gathered that The matron of the clinic informed the victim’s grandfather that his son had impregnated the daughter. The suspect denied the allegation and began maltreating the girl.
On what followed thereafter, the victim said: “The case was reported at the police station on April 30, 2014 and I started living with my paternal grandfather. I was taken to General Hospital Igbeti, where my mother pleaded with the doctor to abort the pregnancy, but the doctor said he would not do it. After I delivered the baby and my grandmother was told the baby looks like father, my father ran away.”
She explained further: “When the pregnancy was confirmed, the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) and the Divisional Crime Officer (DCO) were the ones who purchased the baby clothes and other things needed. They also paid the hospital bill. I am appealing to the public to come to my assistance and help me finish my education. I am in JSS 2.”
According to Sodipo, an ultrasound scan done on May 1, 2014 at Bethsaida Hospital showed that the pregnancy had reached four months. The baby was delivered on September 16, 2014.
Sodipo futher told Sunday Sun that the Medical Director of the General Hospital advised that DNA test should be carried out to determine the paternity of the child but said it could not be done until six months after delivery of the baby.
In the course of investigation, the police were able to smoke out the suspect as Sunday Sun learnt from the Oyo State Police Public Relations Officer, Olabisi Okuwobi-Ilobanafor, who also confirmed the arrest of the suspect.
The suspect was thereafter arraigned before the Chief Magistrate Court at Kisi presided over by Chief Magistrate Usman Isiaku. He was subsequently remanded in Oyo Prison and the case adjourned to October 24, 2014
