A 16-year-old girl on Thursday told the Lagos State Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Courts, Ikeja, that her 43-year-old father, Emmanuel Odega, started defiling her when she was 14.
PUNCH Metro gathered that Odega was arraigned in November 2021 for allegedly raping the victim on a beach and at his girlfriend’s house.
He allegedly claimed to be under the influence of a spirit.
The state prosecutor, Bukola Okeowo, noted that the girl’s mother relocated to South Africa in 2014.
The victim, while being led in evidence by Okeowo, said the abuse started when her father started touching sensitive parts of her body.
She said, “When I noticed this, I moved away from him. I told my twin brother about it in the morning, but he shunned me and did not believe me.
“The next day, he had sex with me at night. I could not shout or do anything because he threatened me. He continued to do it after we moved from where we were and relocated to a wooden house at Badore, Ajah.
“At this point, it became an issue because he had sex with me almost every time on the beach.
“There was a night he woke me up and told me that the holy spirit told him to have sex with me. I thought he was pulling my legs, but when he realised that I was not ready to submit myself, he forcefully had sex with me.
“My father once had issues with his girlfriend, so he woke me up on the night of that day and led me into the kitchen to sleep with me. I dared not make any sound because he threatened to kill me, which was why I could not tell my mother.”
She noted that her father, while claiming that their neighbours were intrusive, took her and her sibling to his girlfriend’s house in Lekki, where he continued to violate her.
She stated that while at the girlfriend’s house, her father suddenly asked her to pack out, but she refused and locked herself in.
“After the interventions of the landlord and another elderly man, I opened the door. He immediately took my bag and dragged me out, so I started shouting for help.
“Some boys in the neighbourhood came out and asked him where he was taking me to at that time of the night.
“He replied that he’s my father and I would not stay in his girlfriend’s house again. It was then I explained to the old man that my father had been having sex with me for almost one year,” the teenager said.
The minor said the resident called the estate chairman and the matter was reported to the police.
A forensic examiner at the Mirabel Centre, Dr Oyedeji Alagbe, told the court that he carried out a medical examination on the minor on June 28, 2021.
He said, “My findings showed no fresh injuries to the vagina, but several repeated forceful vagina penetration.”
Justice Ramon Oshodi adjourned further hearing till June 6, 2022.
Punch
