The wife of Ondo State governor, Arabinrin Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu has waded into the issue of a 19-year old lady, Fatima, who alleged her father of frequently having Sexual intercourse with her since age 12 in Owo.
To this end, the First Lady sent delegates to Owo, led by the Senior Special Assistant to the governor on Gender Research and Documentation, Mrs Temitope Daniyan, in the company of the State Chairperson of the Federation of Women Lawyers, FIDA.
This move, therefore, led to the re-arrest of the suspect after the First Lady’s team visited the B-Division Police station to know why he was initially granted bail.
On their visit to the State Police Command, where they met the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr Tee Leo Ikoro, and the Divisional Police Officer of Owo, Mr Gbola Adigun, it was confirmed that he had been rearrested a few minutes to their departure from Owo.
Addressing the delegates, the PPRO affirmed that further investigation is ongoing, noting that it wasn’t a type of case that could be swept under the carpet.
“We will do everything possible within our means and legally to ensure that the man is prosecuted and the outcome will be known to everybody because I have listened to the girl and I think it’s pathetic. A few minutes ago I was told that the man has been brought to the station because he was first granted bail”.
He hinted that proper arrangements were ongoing to transfer the man to the state Criminal Investigative Department today and would be paraded after scrutiny.
The victim of the incest, who has been in the custody of the First Lady since Wednesday, while narrating her ordeal, revealed that her father, Usman Momoh, AKA Awo, deflowered her when she was 12yrs old and would threàthened to kill her if she dared to expose him.
According to her, he normally wakes her in the middle of the night in their room and parlour apartment and takes her to the kitchen downstairs to have sex with her. She claimed he usually holds a knife during the process.
Asked if her mother was aware, she explained that whenever she made a move to tell her, she wouldn’t give her a listening ear and the abuse kept coming regularly until last December when she declined and ran out of home.
She further explained that anytime her father woke her in the middle of the night and she refused, she would sleep outside their apartment till daybreak while her mother wouldn’t show concern to ask for the cause of her action.
The Senior Secondary school graduate of St. Catherine Secondary school Owo, explained that her father had made it a tradition to sleep with her before paying her school fees or fending for her needs.
She further alleged him of attempting to do the same with her other female siblings, which her 17years old sister confirmed when the First Lady team visited her at school.
According to her younger sister, Jemila, their father once woke her in the middle of the night under the guise of observing Aluwala (ablution) but made a move to sleep with her but she refused and reported to her mother who scolded him not to try such again.
The last straw that broke the camel’s back was when their father took Fatima to Havanna hotel in Owo last 24th December with an intent to have her as usual, but which she refused as consequently made her abscond. She was found by a good Samaritan young man while sitting inside a gutter at night and took her to his apartment for five days before taking her to a relative (Her mother’s elder sister), after convincing her to voice out with the assurance that no evil would befall her.
On her part, the victim’s aunt, Mrs Mary Diamond, and her husband accommodated her since then and was able to expose the suspect which led to his arrest but was later granted bail when his relatives from Kogi state intervened by telling the Police that he would be carrying out a traditional ritual rite for committing an abomination.
According to Mrs Diamond, the suspect, who is a Gardener at the Rufus Giwa Polytechnic Owo, attempted suicide immediately after he confessed to the crime before his arrest and begged not to be exposed but they went ahead to report him to the police but was bailed by his younger brother based on performing rites.
“He bought all the items for the ritual and they were taken to their village with a warning that the girl must never live under the same roof with him”, the woman explained.
The 39years old mother of the girl who was later convinced by her elderly ones to show face after the First Lady’s team met her absence in their Obagbuyi Residence, reluctantly cooperated while claiming ignorance of the allegation.
Mrs Diamond, the victim’s aunty had earlier hinted that her late mother once said that the suspect told her that Fatima wasn’t his biological daughter, while the lady also affirmed that he used to refer to her as a bastard.
The victim who was adjudged as one of the brightest students of St. Catherine by the teachers obtained nine credits in her SSCE but expressed fear that her father was said to have set her results ablaze during the period he exposed him.
