An Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court, Lagos, yesterday remanded a 55-year-old man, Eze Chukwuma, in prison for allegedly defiling at least two of his daughters.
Chukwuma was arraigned for allegedly defiling his two daughters aged 16 and 17 (names withheld) for almost nine years (from 2008 till 2017).
The defendant was arraigned on a two-count charge of defilement contrary to Section 137 of the Criminal Law, CH. C17. Vol 3, Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
The state prosecutor, A. A. George, told the court that the defendant committed the alleged offences between 2008 and 2017 at No 2, Agbeke Close, Iyana Close, Iyana-Era, Coker Bus Stop, Ijanikin, Lagos.
However, according to a police statement by one of the daughters, a 16-year-old victim, the defendant began having sexual intercourse with his daughters after his wife died in February 2008.
The girl, an SS2 student, said that her father took turns with her and her sister every night and was the person who deflowered her in 2008.
In her written complaint at Ojo Police Station against her father, the girl said that one of her elder sisters (name withheld) ran away from their house after she could no longer endure her father’s incessant sexual harassment. She said:
“The whole thing started when my mother died in February 2008. My father came and brought us (me and my younger sister) back from the village in Ebonyi State to Lagos. My father started harassing my elder sister sexually.
“But two of my elder sisters were already staying with him then. When we got to the house, we couldn’t find one of my sisters.
“So I asked my eldest sister, Adaeze (pseudo name) and she said that Ngozi (not real name) ran away from the house when she could no longer bear the sexual harassment from daddy.
“She said that daddy was sleeping with her and she ran away because it became too much.
“My eldest sister stayed and endured everything because she would soon finish secondary. My eldest sister later gained admission into the university and since then had not come home neither has she spoken with my father.
“After she left, we packed to Iyana-Era, and by that time, I was now left at home with my two other sisters.
“At night, my father will ask us to separate ourselves so that he can sleep with one person before going to the other person. Sometimes, he would even threaten to stab us if we refuse to allow him have his way.
“So out of fear, I allowed him and he deflowered me. He slept with me only once. When I tried to confront him, after he finished, that what he was doing to us was not good, he told me to shut up.
“He told me that sin was sin; that there was no sin which was bigger or smaller in the eyes of God. Our youngest sister, who is 12 years old, sleeps in the same room with my father, but I don’t know if he is doing the same thing to her.”
Justice Abiola Soladoye, however, ordered that the defendant be remanded in Kirikiri Medium Prisons and adjourned the case till October 28 for trial.
