Posted by By JULIANA FRANCIS on
A 17-year-old girl stunned policemen at the Sabo Division in Lagos when she walked into the station to claim that her father raped her on several occasions.
A 17-year-old girl stunned policemen at the Sabo Division in Lagos when she walked into the station to claim that her father raped her on several occasions.
Grace, 17, claimed her ordeal started last year, when her father accused her of dating the leader of the youths section in her church. She simply gave the name of her father as Mr. Mba.
"He said I was dating my church member. He stripped me naked and beat me. He put pepper into my vagina. The next day, he took me to a house with many rooms and beds. He asked me to undress, I refused.
'He slapped me. I removed my clothes. He pushed me down on the bed. I tried to shout but he closed my mouth. He inserted a candlestick into my private part. Later, he removed it and laid on me. He started doing it." She said the father defiled her severally.
Tired of incessant rape by her father, Grace, 17, walked into the police station and told policemen the horror she had been going through.
She said: "I have two sisters, Comfort, 9 and Mary, 2. I fear that when they grow older, he would rape them. I have to stop him."
But being raped was nothing new to the Junior Secondary School (JSS 11) student. She was 16-year-old when she was raped by her step-father's younger brother at Aba.
According to her, she was on a sickbed and on drip on the day the man raped her. She complained to her mother, who told her husband and the man was sent packing from the house.
Right from the time she was born, Grace had never had an easy life. She revealed to Daily Sun how a love affair, which started in school between her mother and father, resulted in her birth. According to her, her mother started taking care of them after her father disappeared. The woman later got married to one Mr. Obasi at Aba. She also explained that she had a lovely life when Obasi came into their lives but that soon changed when Mba stormed the house, harassed Obasi and demanded his daughter.
As soon as Grace got to Lagos and started attending a church, her father accused her of dating a church member.
The last straw that broke the camel's back and forced Grace to seek solace at the Sabo police station happened on August 16, when the man allegedly raped her again.
On that fateful day, Mba's wife complained of missing money. According to Grace, that was the second time money was missing in the house. The first was N120 and the second one was N60. Mba had immediately suspected Grace and vowed to teach her a lesson.
She recalled how he took her out that same night, telling her he was taking her to be questioned by his brother, Paul. When Grace noticed the route was not the usual one to Paul's house, she protested but Mba told her that Paul had moved to a new house.
She said: "We got to a house and met a woman. She gave him a key and tissue. He took me into a room and asked me to undress, adding that I stole the money. All my life, I have never stolen. I refused to pull off my clothes. He ordered me to lie down, I refused and he slapped me. He covered my mouth and pulled off his clothes. He laid on me and started doing it! Later, he ordered me not to tell anybody."
On August 26, Grace wrote a letter, threatening her father that she was going to the police. She ran away from home to Yaba and was taken home by a pastor who she narrated her ordeal to. She spent the night with the pastor's family.
On August, 27, Grace walked into the police station and opened a can of worms. Mba had since been on the run but detectives said they are on his trail.
When Daily Sun asked Grace why she never told her mother and step-mother of her father's abuse, she said: "They would not believe me. Look, even now, some of the policemen don't believe me."
Grace's step-mother was said to have told the police that most nights, Mba used to take the girl out and returned late. And whenever he was questioned, Mba would flare up, saying he could take his daughter anywhere he chose.