The
Human Right department of Ilemba Hausa Police Division, in Ojo area of
Lagos has arrested a 49- year-old man who allegedly had been having
carnal knowledge of his teenaged daughter for five years.
It
was discovered during investigation that his daughter Janet(not real
name)got pregnant in the process twice, only for her father to allegedly
abort the pregnancy with the aid of a herbalist.
Sitting
at a corner in the Human Rights Office, 17-year-old Janet could not
raise her head to face her father, Wale Akinusi, who was also there.
When approached, she simply stated that at last, she had been freed from
the psychological trauma associated with her father’s sacrilegious
act.
Crime
Alert gathered that Janet’s tale of woe started after her mother
abandoned her barely when she was two-year-old for her paternal
grandmother.
It
was gathered that her mother who was then a Junior Secondary 3 student,
was impregnated by Wale who was 32 years old. Initially, he reportedly
denied paternity of the pregnancy but later opted for an abortion on the
ground that he could not afford to father a child then because he was
only an apprentice.
But his mother came to the rescue as she offered to take care of the baby who turned out to be Janet.
But when she was 12, her father, reportedly took her from her grandmother, with a promise to give her a better education.
Rather
than live up to his promise, her father, allegedly use her to satisfy
his sexual urge, a practice that went on until he was arrested.
Narrating
how it all started, Janet in her sitting position with her head bowed
all through, said: “When I was leaving my grandmother’s house, I was
happy because my father said I would be attending a better school. But I
waited for months without being enrolled in any school.
“One
night, then, I was 12,my dad called me into his room and told me he
took an oat with my mother to be the first man to have sex with me. He
said it had a spiritual connotation and that it was to enable him assume
his proper financial state.
“Then,
I was too young to understand what he meant. He had carnal knowledge of
me that night. At a point, he asked if it was painful. All I did was to
watch him have his way, still unable to understand what he was doing.”
First pregnancy aborted by a herbalist
“It
continued until I was 14 years. Then, I started having a funny feeling.
I told him I was sick and when we conducted a pregnancy test, it was
positive. Next day, he told me we were going somewhere and we ended up
in the home of a herbalist in Ikorodu, who gave me some concoction. I
drank some in his apartment and took the rest home. After two days, my
menstruation started and my father assured me all was well.
He
only gave me a week’s break before he continued all over again. Two
years later, when I was 16 years, I got sick again. When I informed
daddy, we went for another pregnancy test which confirmed my fear; I was
pregnant again!
When
he returned next day from his shop, he told me there was no need to go
to the herbalist. Rather he gave me two sachets of Alabukun and squeezed
some lime juice into a cup, asking me to take it in a gulp. It did the
magic and the menstrual flow started few days later.”
“After
the second abortion, I became tired of the whole thing. I started being
afraid every night. At times, I would put tissue paper under my panties
, pretending I was witnessing my monthly flow. After a while, he got
the trick, for he started taking note of the date.
Challenges father
“I
summoned courage and reported the sacrilegious act to our neighbors.
But none of them could confront him. Rather they told me they could not
interfere into our family affair” , she stated, with her head still
bent.
Apparently
discouraged by the cold reaction from the neighbors, Janet decided to
take the bull by the horn. Looking straight into his father’s eyes for
the very first time since the sacrilegious act started, she told her
father she was tired of the whole thing. To make do her threat, she
reportedly rushed to the kitchen, grabbed a knife and threatened to stab
him if he attempted to force her.
“This
happened on November 28, 2012. My father had come home from his shop .
And at about 6pm, he called me inside to warm his bed. But when he saw
the knife, he retraced his steps. I quickly ran inside my room , with
the knife in my hand and packed my things out of the house, to stay with
a friend whose family welcomed me after I narrated all that has been
going on in the past five years.”
“After
spending three weeks with them, I received a text message from my
father, asking me to come home, or I would die. When I showed the text
message to the family I was putting up with, they suggested I reported
the case to the police. I hesitated at first because I was scared he
would be jailed. “But I changed my mind when the text message threat continued”, she said.
I did that to appease the gods – father
When
approached, it was obvious that 49-year-old Wale Akinusi, a fashion
designer who hails from Ondo central in Ondo state was oblivious of the
legal implication of the offense, as he showed no sign of remorse. He
bluntly told this reporter that what he did was not new under the sun,
adding that this would not be the first time such story would be
published on the pages of newspapers.
“It
is not a new thing that a man has sex with his daughter and even if I
am jailed at the end, I will surely come out after serving my jail term.
But I promise that my daughter will join me” he threatened, dismissing
the issue with a wave of the hand.
Continuing,
he said: “I went back to claim my child so as to fulfill the oat made
between her mother and I. That was why I took her to the herbalist when
she was pregnant, so as to appease the gods of her mother’s land. You
will not understand. “You
see, when her mother was six months pregnant, we made love. She later
told me that it was a taboo for a man to sleep with a pregnant woman
in her place. She said the only remedy was for the man to be the first
person to sleep with the child.
“I
initially did not want to do it. But along the line, I discovered that
things were not going on well with me financially. And when I made
inquiry, I was made to understand that I had to appease the god’s of her
mother’s land, so as to attain my rightful place in destiny.” Asked
why he continued after the first time, he kept mute. Also asked why he
did not satisfy his sexual urge on his wife who has had four children
for him, he explained that they were leaving apart.
“My
wife lives in Ketu with the children while I live in Ojo. I had to live
apart because I do not want my wife and children to suffer the
consequences of my sin. Also I did not want my wife to know I was
sleeping with my own daughter”, he said. Meanwhile,
effort according to sources at the Human Rights department, was on to
arrest the herbalist who allegedly gave Janet the concoction that
aborted her first pregnancy,while her father would be charged to court.
you can post a comment, it is easy
-Omo Oodua
No comments:
Post a Comment