There are dads and there are also daaads…Chukwuemeka Odunzie(pictured above) falls into the category of the shameless dads, he doesn’t even worth the dád title at all.
He sexually abuses his seven year old daughter at their Ojokoro Housing Estate, Meiran,
Ijaiye, Lagos, residence and pays her for it.
The
primary three pupil told Vanguard: “My daddy usually gives me money after
touching my private part or putting his joystick in my mouth. He touches
my private part when my mother is outside washing clothes or when she
is not in the house.”
Narrating
her ordeal, the victim’s mother, Mrs Odunzie, said: “Last year, my son
told me that his younger sister was fond of playing with her private
parts. It sounded strange that a seven-year-old child would be doing
that.
“I will talk to her, scold her and sometimes beat her. There was a time I told my husband.
“All
he said was that if she was acting strangely I should take her to any
of these white garment churches. I was alarmed when one day, while we
were in the sitting room, she started touching and playing with herself.
She confesses to mother
“Immediately,
I called her inside the room and asked her what the problem was. I
asked her if anyone was fiddling with her private parts. She said it was
her father that always touched her private parts and that after
touching her private parts, he would give her money.
“I
confronted my husband when he returned from work but he denied
vehemently. I reported a case of defilement to Ebenezer Divisional
Police and the policemen invited my husband for questioning.
“He
was arrested later by the police, who gave me a report to take my
daughter to the hospital. The doctor said there had been no penetration,
but that there is an opening in her virginal and advised that the
victim be tested for infection.
Family pressure
“By the time we came back from the hospital, the IPO said it was a family issue and that we should go home and settle the case.
“Members
of his family were shouting, saying that I had no right to report the
case to the police, that it was a family issue that should be treated as
one. They pressurized me till I withdrew the case, after which he
promised not to defile our daughter again.
“After I withdrew the
case, my husband began to beat the children at the slightest
provocation. And at times, he would beat them for no tangible reason.
“Two
weeks ago, it happened again. I asked her what she did for her father
that made him give her money without giving her siblings. That was when
she said that daddy gave her the money after touching her private part.
“Her
siblings said it had been ongoing for a while and that they refused to
tell me because the last time they did, their daddy kept beating them.
“He puts it in my mouth”
“Her
brother said whenever I was not around, or I was outside washing
clothes, daddy would send him and his other siblings inside the bedroom,
while he would ask the victim to kneel down in between his legs and
bend her head towards his manhood.
“She also confirmed that after touching her, daddy would put his joystick in her mouth.
“There was even a time my daughter was caught in the act with a four-year-old boy, who is a neighbour’s child.”
In
his defense, the victim’s father, Chukwuemeka Odunzie, admitted that it
was only once he abused his daughter and that he was not doing it for
occult reasons.
Reacting to the issue, the Co-coordinator,
Project Alert, Josephine Effah Chukwuma, said: “Apart from ensuring that
the law takes it course, the main task is how to rehabilitate this
little girl, whose life has been messed up by her father.
“This
is because the abuse was not a one-off thing as the victim had become so
accustomed to the act, that when she feels the urge and there is no one
to touch her, she touches herself.
“There is need to rehabilitate her and her siblings, who watched.”