A 41-year-old father has been arrested for defiling and raping his 16-year old daughter for three years, from 2020 to 2023.

In the process, the father impregnated the daughter and procured an abortion for her.

The abusive act continued until the victim and her younger sister agreed to either commit suicide or kill their father to free the victim from the sexual abuse.

They, however, opted to report the abusive act to an NGO on May 5, 2023 which prompted the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Kogi Command, to arrest the father.

The victim told newsmen in Lokoja on Wednesday that she had been sexually abused by her father since 2020 after her mother left home.

The victim explained: “It happened in 2020 when my mum left home and since then my dad had been sexually abusing me.

“In 2021, my father impregnated me and took me to a clinic where they aborted the pregnancy I had for him.

“I couldn’t leave the house because of my younger sister as I was afraid my father could do the same thing to my sister.

“After aborting the pregnancy he continued the sexual abuse until I couldn’t take it anymore, which I have to report to an NGO who reported the case to NSCDC.”

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On his part, the father admitted to have committed the act, that he actually dis-flowered his daughter.

The suspect said he was hypnotized after his wife left her in 2020.

“I actually committed the act but I don’t know how I did it. I love my wife very well; I begged her to come back home but she never did for the past three years,” the father said.

Newsmen were not allowed by the NSCDC to disclose the identity and names of both the victim and the suspect due to the sensitivity of the case to avoid victim’s stigmatisation.

Speaking after parading the suspect on Wednesday at NSCDC Command Headquarters, Lokoja, the state’s Commandant, Ahmad Gandi, said the command received a complaint lodged by an NGO on May 5 .

According to him, the complaint was lodged on a case of defilement, rape and incest in which the suspect is a biological father of the victim.

The commandant said that the abusive act was on for three years from 2020 to 2023, since when the victim was 16 years old.

The commandant said that the father had admitted committing the act, saying he would be charged to court after concluding the investigation.

In his comment, Mr. Abdulrasak Ibrahim, the Executive Director of the NGO, the Islamic Centre for Communication and Creative Thought (ItrippleCT), noted that after hearing about the issue, the victim was immediately relocated to a safe place from her father’s house to protect her from further abuse.

The Star