A 12-year-old has recounted a very shocking tale of how she was constantly sexually abused by her father and his mistress' son. What's even more startling about her revelation is the fact that the mistress was aware of the abuse and even played a part.
The girl's ordeal began in May 2016 when her father took her away from the home in Isheri where she lived with both of her parents and got her resettled in the home where her father's mistress lived with her son in Ilogbo area of Lagos. The father did all this without the knowledge of his wife, the girl's mother. During her stay there. she was made to quit school and begin selling oil bean seed (ugba) with her father's mistress at the Alaba International Market during the day and returning to the house in Ilogbo at night. It was on one of those nights that her father's mistress' son raped her in the presence of her father and his mother. She contracted several sexually transmitted diseases during the period.
Narrating the incident, the victim, whose name will not be given for the purpose of privacy, said:
"One of my father’s mistress’ son, Kenneth, crept to where I slept on the floor one night and started touching my private parts. I woke up and rushed to inform my father, who was sleeping on the bed with his mistress. But he drove me back, saying I should allow him do whatever he wanted to do with me. My father came to where I was sleeping and, with the assistance of his mistress, parted my legs and instructed his stepson to have sex with me," Vanguard reports her saying.
"The next day, after everyone had gone out, my father called me inside, locked the door and had sex with me. He warned me not to tell anyone about what happened, threatening to kill me if I did. Since then, my father and his stepson had taken turns to rape me. At times, when I went to sell ugba at Alaba, his stepson would take me to an uncompleted building, where he would place some cartoons on the ground and rape me."
Meanwhile, back at home, her mother was already looking for her and even involved the police but the father claimed not to be aware of her whereabout. 7 months later, after the police and certain relatives intervened, he brought his daughter back home to his wife in December 2016.
"I had gone to the market to buy foodstuff one day, only to return and discovered that my daughter was missing. When my husband came back, I asked him about her whereabouts, he denied knowing where she was, saying I should look for her. Even when the matter of our missing child was reported to the police, he denied knowing where she was until December, when he said he took her to learn a trade at a relative’s. It took the intervention of the police and some relatives before he brought her back last December."
When the victim eventually returned home, her mother noticed something unusual in the way she walked so she inquired from her what had happened while she was away. The girl refused to open up but after her mother involved her teacher who takes her extramural classes, she revealed to them that she had been raped by her dad and his mistress' son. The victim's mother said this will not be the first time such will happen. According to her, she caught her husband with his manhood inside her daughter's mouth when she was only 9-months-old. When she was six years old there was a repeat of the sexual abuse. She said she confronted her husband after her daughter opened up to her but he mercilessly and drove her and her daughter away. Since then, they've been living with a relative.
Following the revelation, the victim's father, a commercial bus driver whose name was given simply as Adimawu, was reported to the police. He was arrested last week Wednesday and during interrogation, he denied the allegations of sexual abuse and said that he took his daughter away from home to ensure her safety because his wife had a mental problem. He told the policemen at the Human Right Desk, Ikotun Police Division, that he never assaulted his daughter sexually. His wife disputed the mental illness claims and said she was simply suffering emotional and psychological trauma after her daughter went missing. She alleged that her husband's action was a ploy to chase her and her daughter away from the home they both built so that he could move his mistress and her son in.
Police sources hinted that the suspect earlier admitted that his stepson raped his daughter but later denied it. It was also disclosed that the case will be transferred to the command headquarters, Ikeja. Sir Barth Ozoana, who reported the sexual abuse to the police, will serve as the lawyer for the victim. He said he would assist his client and mother legally until justice prevailed.
