A commercial motorcyclist in Lagos, Amarachi Chukwuneke, is currently cooling his feet in prison custody for reportedly sexually molesting his six-year-old daughter.
Chukwuneke, 43, was arrested by the police at the Festac Division, following a report by his neighbour in the Amuwo Odofin area of the state.
The suspect had separated from his wife and the victim together with her two siblings lived with him, City Round gathered.
It was learnt that the neighbour had observed the girl walking into the compound with uneasiness while returning from school on November 5, 2019.
The woman was said to have asked the minor the cause of her condition, but she was initially reluctant to speak up.
After the Good Samaritan persuaded her, she reportedly opened up, alleging that her father inserted his finger in her private parts and had sex with her.
Alarmed by the revelation, it was gathered that neighbours confronted Chukwuneke alongside with the child, who repeated the claim in the father’s presence.
The case was reported at the Festac Police Division and the father was arrested. He was later transferred to the Gender Unit at the police headquarters in Ikeja which charged him with defilement.
“On November 5, 2019, when the girl returned from school, a nieghbour noticed that something was wrong with the way she was walking and asked her what was wrong. After persuading her, she said it was her father who touched her bumbum (private parts). She said the father had been having sex with her,” a source said.
In her statement, the victim reportedly gave a graphic description of how she was molested by her father.
She stated, “Me and my brothers live with our daddy but we are always with our neighbour because my daddy does not give us food. Anytime we sleep, my father would touch my bumbum (private parts) and put his finger inside my bumbum. One day, he put the thing he uses to pee (urinate) inside my bumbum. I cried that day because blood came out and my daddy used water to wash my bumbum and begged me not to cry and that I should not tell anybody.”
Chukwuneke, who denied the allegation, said his daughter had complained to her some months earlier that she was feeling pains in her private parts.
He said he checked and saw that she was discharging some fluid, adding that he bought some drugs for her to use.
He added, “I got married in 2012 and we are blessed with three children. In June 2018, my wife left me because she got pregnant for another man in my hometown in Imo State.
“In August 2018, I travelled to the village and brought my children with me to Lagos. They were living with me until the girl complained to me that her bumbum was paining her.
“After I checked, I realised some fluid was coming out of her private parts. Thereafter, I went to see a chemist woman who gave me drugs. After she used the medication, it stopped. Later on, she complained about the same issue to me. I went to a nurse who also gave me some drugs for which I paid N500. She told me to buy a certain drug that will finally stop the symptom.
“On November 4, 2019, my daughter came to me again and said she was feeling pains in her private parts. I tried to look for money to buy drugs for her. The following day when I returned from where I went to get some money, I met some neighbours with her. They said my daughter told them someone had been having sex with her.
“My daughter was asked who had sex with her and she said I was the one. When I wanted to ask her the same question, my neighbours refused. That was how I was brought to the police station. I did not have any sexual intercourse with my daughter.”
A police prosecutor, ASP Benson Emuerhi, subsequently brought Chukwuneke before an Ogba magistrates’ court on one count of defilement.
The charge read, “That you, Amarachi Chukwuneke, on November 4, 2019, at 9pm, at Amuwo Odofin, Festac, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did unlawfully defile a six-year-old girl by having sexual intercourse with her, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.”
The defendant’s plea was not taken by the presiding Chief Magistrate, Mrs O. Sile-Amzat, who ruled that he should be remanded in prison while the case file should be sent to the Directorate of Public Prosecution for legal advice.
The case was adjourned till February 27, 2020.
