A 15-year-old girl, Joy, yesterday at the
Lagos State Police command headquarters, Ikeja told a chilling story how
she was defiled by her uncle.
Giving a graphic account on how she was abused, Joy said “I was
brutally defiled on Sunday. I was sleeping when uncle Akpan Imeh
started touching me. I woke up and tried to resist him, but he
overpowered me. He used his palm to cover my mouth and forcefully tore
my undies and had sex with me.
“He had done same last year. I was 14 years old then, his wife
confronted him and he denied it, he lied that I forgot to lock the door
before sleeping and unknown rapist cashed in and slept with me. I tried
to explain to mummy that it was my uncle, but she pretended she was
confused.
“I could not push the case further, because mummy started behaving as
if I was trying to tarnish her husband’s name. well, I decided to go on
with my life.
On Sunday, I was all alone in the house in company with uncle as his
wife travelled with his son. He came in the night and did it to me. I
was begging him to remember that I am his sister’s daughter, but, the
more I struggled, the more the thing was entering. It was so painful and
blood was gushing out of my private part.
‘After doing it, he started begging that I must not tell his wife, I
was pretending to reason with him. He made another attempt, and I
escaped from the house. I ran as far as my legs could carry me, till I
met a man, who I explained everything that happened to me.
The man took me to a hotel and said I should sleep till the following
morning. He promised to take me to the police station. I could not
sleep, because the more, I tried, the more the memory of what the man I
call daddy did, was coming to my mind.
I am crying because I call him daddy. I started living with him when I
was five. I am now 15, meaning that I have been living with him for 10
years. Even in the hotel room, the man who claimed he was helping me
still tried to sleep with me, but I started shouting and he let me be.
It was my shout that attracted the staff who assisted me in
escaping another rape. I now went to the police, who took me to the
hospital and arrested my uncle.
The suspect, Akpan told Daily Sun that he was drunk when he committed
the abominable act. I am finished; it is abomination in my community to
commit incest. I slept with my sister’s daughter out of drunkenness.
It was not ordinary. One of my relations gave birth after a decade of
looking for the fruit of the womb out of happiness, I drank excessively
so, I did not have control of myself. It was after doing it that I
realised what I did. If my home people hear what happened, I will be
ostracized. my wife will kill me.”