A 38-year-old man, Mr Uchenna Onyegbele, has been arrested by angry youths of Elekahia community in Port Harcourt City Local Government Area of Rivers State for allegedly raping his three daughters.
The Guardian gathered that the suspect, who is currently detained at the Elekahia police station, started defiling his daughters aged 10, seven and five years old since 2012.
According to wife of the suspect, Mrs Christiana Tobias, who is calling on the authorities to ensure her husband is prosecuted, she caught her husband in 2012 using his fingers to penetrate their first daughter who was two years old then and when she raised the alarm, her mother-in-law, with her husband assaulted her while her kinsmen warned her not to mention the case again.
She said in 2017, her husband used his fingers to penetrate their five-year-old daughter when she was aged two and she reported him to the police, but he was granted bail when she declined following up the case due to pressure from some quarters.
Mrs Tobias said the suspect went further into raping the girls whenever she leaves the house, a situation that forced her to relocate to the city. She said her husband came to Port Harcourt early this year and pleaded for forgiveness with assurances that he would not repeat the act. She forgave him and accepted him back.
According to her, the last straw that broke the camel’s back was when she went to the market last week and asked her 10-year-old daughter to bath her five-year-old sister. She said her female neighbour who opted to bath the girl discovered that the child had been penetrated. She said on arrival from the market, the neighbour informed her and they took the child to the hospital where medical examinations on her confirmed she was raped.
She said her husband, on noticing she was aware of his latest act, escaped from the house and never returned until yesterday.
“We reported the matter to a civil rights activist, Otobo Dennis, who, on receipt of the compliant, informed the community youth president at Boms Street, Elekahia, in Port Harcourt, and acting on credible information that Mr Tobias was in the house, the youths mobilised, arrested the suspect and handed him over to the police.”
The victim’s mother said she is tired of the shameful act and called on the police and other authorities to ensure her husband does not escape prosecution this time.
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