A 41-year-old widower, Ojowi Johnson, has been arraigned at an Akure High Court on two count charge of rape and procuring illegal abortion for his 14-year old daughter.
Johnson, an auto mechanic, allegedly raped his daughter several times for two years, and procured an illegal abortion for her after impregnating her.
The prosecution led by a state counsel, Mr. A.M . Kayode Esq, told the court that the man was living with his daughter at Clerk Quarter, Ijebu Owo Iin Owo Local Government Area of Ondo State, and was having stedy sex with his daughter for almost two years.
Besides, he allegedly took the girl to Ifon, in nearby Ose Local Government, to procure an abortion for her after he impregnated her.
However, the accused person pleaded “not guilty” to the charges leveled against him.
The prosecution called two witnesses in the case, with the victim, daughter of the accused (names withheld) as the first prosecution witness (Pw1).
Testifying before the court, the girl narrated how her father had sex with her several times more than she could remember and eventually got her pregnant.
She claimed that he threatened to stab her with a knife if she ever told anyone about the abominable and incestuous relationship between them. She explained that the fear of his threat made her to keep mum until she summoned courage to report him to the police.
According to her: “My father had taken me to one “Mummy Ayo” in Ifon who carried out an abortion on me when I got pregnant for him.
“In April, 2018, I summoned courage and went to report him at the ‘A’ Division in Owo, which led to his arrest.”
Also testifying, one Inspector Kareem Lukman, stated that a case of rape and procuring illegal abortion was reported at their station by a girl against her father and that the case was transferred to him for investigation.
Lukman explained that the accused person was subsequently arrested, while he gave voluntary statement after due caution.
In the statement, the IPO said the accused person admitted to have slept with his daughter and that he could recollect coupling with her five times only.
But the accused, Ojovi, in his defence, denied ever threatening his daughter with a knife as she claimed to the police and that he only requested her not to tell anyone.
He said: “I am not the one to put her in the family way. My daughter is wayward, which was why I had helped her to get rid of the pregnancy so that she would not bring shame upon the family.”
In his statement, he wrote that the mother of the victim died when the girl was seven years old and she was later taken to Port-Harcourt to live with her paternal aunt.
He said that his sister had returned the girl some few years later, with an accusation that she was wayward, stressing that her waywardness and un-seriousness had retarded her in the primary school at age 14.
At the conclusion of trial, the judge, Justice Samuel Bola, adjourned till November 29, 2019 for judgement.
The Hope
