Operatives of the Ondo State Police Command have arrested a 45-year-old trader, Akinyemi Akinrotoye, for allegedly raping his 12-year-old daughter (names withheld) in Ondo, headquarters of Ondo West Local Government Area of the state, Nigerian Tribune reports.
Akinrotoye was arrested following a formal complaint by one of the teachers of the young girl who noticed some abnormal changes and reported the case of child abuse to the police in the Enuowa division in Ondo town.
The 45-year-old trader was alleged to have been sleeping with his daughter for over a year before he was arrested by the police, last weekend.
A family source explained the aged mother of Akinrotoye who suspected his son to be sleeping the girl, took the little girl into her custody but the father forcefully withdrew her to his place, saying the victim complained about her father sleeping with her every night.
Narrating her ordeal, the victim said, “My mother died when I was six years and since then I have been staying with my father. Some time ago, my grandmother came to pick me up from where my father and I were staying, to her house so that she can take care of me, but my father refused.”
“When she took me by force, some days later, my father came to my grandmother’s house to fight her with a cutlass so she could release me to him to stay in his house.”
“When my teacher noticed changes in my attitude in school, she queried me to know what happened and I narrated my ordeal to her. So, the school authority called the police to arrest my father.”
According to the victim’s teacher who does not want her name in print, “When I noticed that Adenike had not been active as she used to be in class, even among her friends since the beginning of the term, I thought she was missing her mother or she was scolded by her father.”
“But she continued to be lonely and left out. This made me invite her for interrogation and she told me what happened to her.”
“She said her father used to sleep with her every night for a long time and he has been threatening her not to tell anyone, if she does not want to die.”
The suspect who was arrested at Okelisa Street in Ondo City denied having carnal knowledge of his daughter, saying he did not do anything with her but said they stay in one room and sleep on the same bed.
