police

All over the world, there is increasing incidence of incest with fathers having carnal knowledge of their biological daughters. More worrisome is the fact that the ugly trend is becoming a routine in this part of the world as hardly a week passes without reports of fathers raping their daughters, mostly teenagers, and, sometimes, in the process, impregnating them. L-R: Amah, Uche, Owolabi, Uzor Across major cities and slums, there are tales everywhere of the shameful act. While some victims speak out, others don’t until it is late because of fear, shame and stigma. Unfortunately, only a few suspects are prosecuted as others go unpunished. And for those who are prosecuted, the cases are sometimes struck out for lack of diligent prosecution, or the victims or witnesses fail to testify. A few weeks ago, Ogun State Police Command arrested a 45-year-old man, Idowu Owolabi, for allegedly raping his 21-year-old daughter. Owolabi, who has three wives, was accused of having carnal knowledge of his daughter since last year. The suspect was arrested on January 28, 2019, following a complaint lodged by the victim at the Divisional Police Headquarters, Oja-Odan in Yewa South Local Government Area of the state. “The first time my father raped me was when I followed him to the farm at Fagboun village. My father forcefully had carnal knowledge of me right there on the farm sometime in March 2018. Since then, my father had continuously been having unlawful carnal knowledge of me with a threat that he would kill me if I dared to tell anybody about it. It was like living in the house of horror”, she narrated. On interrogation, the suspect confessed to the crime but blamed it on the devil. Confirming the incident, the spokesperson for the police in Ogun, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, said father and daughter were resident at Papa Olosun area of Oja-Odan. After receiving the report, the Oja-Odan DPO, CSP Olayemi Jacob, led detectives to the Owolabi’s residence, where he was arrested. “However, the Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, ordered the immediate transfer of the case to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department for proper investigation and possible prosecution of the suspect”, Oyeyemi said. The case is not entirely different from another which happened in January 2018 but, this time, in Lagos, where a father, Segun Durojaiye, in collaboration with his brother, Emmanuel Durojaiye, was arrested by the police for allegedly raping his 16-year-old daughter for about four years. The suspects were charged to court for defilement and incest before a Yaba Chief Magistrate’s Court. Segun was alleged to have started sleeping with his daughter in 2014 after she confided in him about her uncle’s inappropriate show of affection. According to him, after the death of the victim’s stepmother in the same year, she was asked to go and stay with her uncle who, it was alleged, began to molest her sexually. The victim broke her silence after she had allegedly had a series of abortions and was losing weight from the trauma. The case was reported at a police station and the suspects were immediately arrested. Segun was resident at Baba-Benja Street, Oreyo area of Ikorodu, Lagos State while Emmanuel lived at 10, Durojaiye Street, also in the same area.
9jainsider.com