Man, 60, Arrested for Raping Own Daughters, Nieces

The police in Oyo State, monday arrested and paraded a 60-year-old herbalist, Tajudeen Awoniyi, believed to have raped his two daughters and two other minors who are his nieces.

Awoniyi's daughters confirmed their father’s ceaseless incestuous relationship with them, saying they were victims of his uncontrollable knack for raping minors.

One of the suspect’s daughters, Barakat, 15, alleged that her father, actually slept with the two other girls (his nieces). She also maintained that her father who had developed the habit of sleeping with her and her sister after getting drunk had threatened to punish them severely if they ever disclosed his escapades with them.

On the whereabouts of their mother during the incidents, she said that their mother left the home when they were very young.

Narrating further, she said: “We came home with our cousins, Noimot, 14, and Kehinde, 15, on the evening of the incident but when it was too late, they decided to sleep in our house because their mother had travelled.

“My father later gave them black soap and called them into his shrine one after the other and slept with them.

“Each time he was drunk, he would rape me and my sister in the house. He had done it to me three times. I cried but could not tell anyone for fear of my father,” she said.

Similarly, Barakat's sister, Sefiat, 14, also confirmed her father’s incestuous assaults, alleging that he started sleeping with her a year ago. Noimot alleged that Awoniyi used juju before he could sleep with her and that like her sister, she was a virgin before the incident.

“Baba woke us around 1 am on that day and said we should use black soap to bath. We did and after that, he put something in his mouth and slept with us separately,” she added.

The police commissioner, Mohammed Katsina said said doctor’s report indicated that the girls have been infected with sexually transmitted diseases.

In his defence, Awoniyi said he gave the girls the soap but did not sleep with them or his daughters. He said he was being framed by his brother because of a family disagreement.

But the police dismissed Awoniyi’s claims, insisting he was arrested after raping his nieces, who had passed a night in his apartment.

The police added that the girls became victims on the said night after their mother, Jelilat Olayiwola, 35, travelled to Lagos on the day the crime was committed.

She later called the police after discovering that her daughters were behaving abnormally.

(This Day)