A teenage resident in Osogbo, Osun State, (name withheld), has accused a clergy also based in the town, simply identified as Femi, said to be her stepfather, of putting her in the family way at the age of 13.
The victim, aged 16, had approached a Non-Governmental Organisation, the World Institute for Peace, to report the matter and seek Alternative Dispute Resolution.
She had also claimed in an affidavit, sworn to at the Osun State Ministry of Justice, that after her stepfather impregnated her, the pregnancy was aborted.
She further said during a meeting held with the officials of the NGO that the matter was reported to her teacher in school, after about four years of constant abuse by her stepfather.
Narrating further her ordeal in the hands of her stepfather during an alternative dispute resolution meeting organised by WIP, the victim explained that Femi started “having sexual intercourse with me since I was 12. When I was 13 years old, I got pregnant and he took me to a hospital for an abortion.
“He asked me to lie to the doctor that my classmate impregnated me and ran away. The first time he had intercourse with me was on my mother’s bed and he has been doing it continuously.
“I decided not to take the matter to court because my mother had four children for him, although two were dead.
“I don’t want a situation whereby when the children grow up, it would be as if I am the one who sent their father to prison. I decided not to take legal action because of his children who are my younger siblings.”
Also at the meeting, Femi, who also claimed to be a commercial motorcyclist, apart from being a pastor in a church he established, admitted to committing the crime.
“It is true I slept with her although I don’t remember the number of times I did it with her. I’m a pastor and it was God who told me to sleep with her. God also told me to abort the pregnancy,” he said.
The affidavit, sworn to by the mother of the victim on her behalf, a copy of which was obtained by PUNCH Metro on Monday, 19 August, 2024 partly read, “My daughter went to the human rights organisation, World Institute for Peace, and reported a case of defilement and abortion levelled against her stepfather, Femi, early in August 2024.
“That, I have the consent of all the members of the family to swear to the affidavit that on August 11, 2024, we met with the human rights organisation, World Institute for Peace and agreed to settle amicably within the family.
“That, she (victim) agreed to resolve the dispute through alternative dispute resolution and has engaged in negotiation.
“That the family is not ready to pursue any case whatsoever with Mr Femi any longer. That the purpose of withdrawing was as a result of a settlement between the families which she was the sole proposition on the settlement.”
In his admonition for the parties involved in the matter, the chairman of the NGO, Lamina Omotoyosi, called on parents to ensure the safety of their children especially, from close family members and relations, lamenting increasing cases of incest in the state.
Source: The Punch online
