The Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) says it arrested a 41-year-old father in Kogi for raping his 16-year-old daughter.

Speaking after parading the suspect on Wednesday at NSCDC command headquarters in Lokoja, the commandant, Ahmad Gandi, said the command received a complaint from an NGO on May 5.

According to him, the complaint was on a case of defilement, rape and incest in which the suspect is the victim’s biological father. The sexual abuse was on for three years, from 2020 to 2023, since the victim was 16.

Mr Gandi said the victim’s younger sister advised her that they should either commit suicide or kill their father to free themselves from the abusive father.

The commandant said the father had admitted committing the act, saying he would be charged to court after concluding the investigation. Mr Gandi commended the NGO for reporting the case to the command while urging other victims in the society who were dying in silence to come out and report such cases.

The victim told journalists that she had been sexually abused by her father since 2020 after her mother left home.

“It happened in 2020 when my mum left home, and since then, my dad has been sexually abusing me. In 2021, my father impregnated me and took me to a clinic where they aborted the pregnancy I had for him,” the daughter stated. “I couldn’t leave the house because of my younger sister as I was afraid my father could do the same thing to my sister.”

She added, “After aborting the pregnancy, he continued the sexual abuse until I couldn’t take it anymore, which I had to report to an NGO who reported the case to NSCDC.”

On his part, the suspect admitted to having committed the act and dis-flowered his daughter, saying he was hypnotised after his wife left her in 2020.

“I actually committed the act, but I don’t know how I did it. I love my wife very well. I begged her to come back home, but she never did for the past three years,” the father stated. “It is the same stage I was in when my mother left my father, that my wife left my children for me and went away. I love my wife, but she never comes back to me.”

In his comment, Abdulrasak Ibrahim, the executive director of the Islamic Centre for Communication and Creative Thought (ItrippleCT), commended the NSCDC for doing a fantastic job by swinging into action to arrest the suspect.

Mr Ibrahim noted that after hearing about the issue, the victim was immediately relocated to a safe place from her father’s house to protect her from further abuse.

(NAN)