Punch reports:
Seven-year-old Ngozi
(Not her real name) is no longer a child. Her innocence has been stolen by her
41-year-old father, Emeka Igwe, who not only raped her, but got her addicted to
masturbation.
It was gathered that
anytime Ngozi felt sexual urge and her father was not around to stimulate her,
she would invite boys into her parents’ apartment in the Federal Housing
Estate, Meiran, Ojokoro, Lagos State, to “play with her private parts”.
PUNCH Metro learnt that the victim’s mother first detected the act in
January, 2015, and after reporting to policemen at the Ojokoro Police Division,
the case was dismissed as a family matter.
The police reportedly
threatened to detain her, while her husband’s family accused her of inciting
her four children against their family.
Emeka, a trader, allegedly continued to defile his daughter in their apartment until August, when the matter got to the attention of the estate executive.
The Orlu, Imo State
indigene, was apprehended and reported to the Project Alert on Violence against
Women, a non-governmental organisation, from where the case got to the Area F
Police Command.
Ngozi, who is in
primary 3, told PUNCH Metro that her father had been assaulting
her since 2014.
She explained that
after inserting his fingers into her private parts, he would press her head
down and force his manhood into her mouth, adding that he always gave her N10
after the act.
She said her
nine-year-old brother, Ebuka, sometimes watched from a window.
She said, “My dad does
it anytime; in the morning and in the afternoon. My mum always goes to the
market. He will then give me N10 to buy something.
“He will open his leg
and press my head down and put his private parts into my mouth. After that, he
will say I should scratch his body. He will now carry me down and put his
fingers in my private parts again.
“He started it last
year when my mother was washing clothes and I went to buy something. He asked
me to come into the parlour and told Ebuka, Chioma and Chibuike (her siblings)
to go into the bedroom. I did not know that Ebuka was watching from the
window.”
Her mother, Endurance, told PUNCH Metro she had been married to the suspect for more than 10 years, without knowing he was capable of such act.
The 40-year-old said
her first child, Ebuka, had been telling her that Ngozi masturbated, but she
never believed it.
“The first time she did
it in my presence was sometime in January, while I was preparing a meal and I
saw her. I beat her up and asked her to stop it because it was bad.
“I later told my
husband my observation and he said nothing was wrong with her.
“My four-year-old
neighbour’s son came to our apartment and Ngozi took her to our bedroom and
asked the boy to put his fingers in her private parts. It was the boy’s mother
that saw them.
“I called her and asked
if anybody had been playing with her private parts and she said no.”
Endurance said Ebuka
later told her what had been happening between father and daughter.
The other children were
said to have corroborated Ebuka’s account, before Ngozi also confessed to her
mother.
She said she confronted her husband with the allegation, adding that he got angry and started beating the children for every slight offence.
She said when she could
no longer bear it, she reported at the Alakuko Police Station, from where she
was referred to the Ojokoro Police Division.
PUNCH Metro learnt that a test was conducted on the victim at the
General Hosptal, Ile Epo, which showed there was an opening in Ngozi’s private parts.
Endurance said she was
advised to run an infection test on her daughter, before her in-laws asked her
to withdraw the case.
She said the Divisional
Police Officer at Ojokoro threatened to lock her up.
“The DPO said I
deliberately set up my husband because he had not been treating me well. I was
in tears,” she added.
She said they all returned home and things went back to normal until in August when her first child reported to her that their father had started “playing with Ngozi’s private parts” again.
“I called Ngozi and she
told me that her father had started playing with her private parts. She said he
asked her to kneel down and forced her to suck his private parts.
“Then, two weeks ago
while I was washing clothes, Ebuka came and said their father gave Ngozi N20
and did not give him anything. After he left, Chioma also came and said the
same thing.
“Later, I called Ngozi
to know what made her father gave her the money. She told me it was N10, adding
that he played with her private parts.”
The neighbours were
said to have challenged the suspect, but he denied doing anything to the child.
The community youth
leader, Olaitan Adebiyi, told PUNCH
Metro that he got to know about
the case after eavesdropping on a conversation in the street.
He added that he later
met the victim’s mother, who narrated her ordeal to him.
He said, “The estate
executive met and we decided to go to his house to investigate. His co-tenants
confirmed that he had been doing it for a long time. We decided to get him
arrested.
“He came into his apartment around 12.30 on Thursday night, and we decided to keep vigil at his door step till day break. He was about leaving the house on Friday when we apprehended him and told him he had a case to answer.”
The suspect, however,
denied assaulting his daughter.
He said, “I did not do
anything to Ngozi. The day I called her and gave her N10 to buy biscuit, her
siblings asked me for their own, but I said I was not the one that gave her the
money.
“I have touched her
private parts only once. I did not know the time it happened. I touched her
last year. I said, ‘Amaka, remove your pants. Why did you soil your pants?’ I
then took water and washed her. That was all.”
The Director of Project
Alert, Mrs. Josephine Effah-Chukwuma, said the group was ready to take up the
case.
“This is a clear case
of sexual abuse, and we are having an epidemic in our hand. Hardly a week goes
by without us having cases of children between the ages of three to seven being
defiled.
“It is clear that this
woman and her children can no longer live with him. The victim is seven and she
has a five-year-old younger sister, and if this is not well handled, this man
will move on to the little girl as well.”
The Police Public
Relations Officer, Lagos State Command, Patricia Amadin, confirmed the
incident.
She said, “The case is
confirmed. The suspect has also confessed to the crime, especially after his
first son said he saw him.
“We will be
transferring the case to the Area G Command, Ogba. Investigation is ongoing,
and justice will be done.”
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