A 16-year-old girl living in Osogbo, Osun State, has accused her stepfather, a clergy simply identified as Femi, of getting her pregnant when she was 13.
The victim, seeking alternative dispute resolution, reported the issue to the World Institute for Peace (WIP), a Non-Governmental Organisation.
She claimed in an affidavit, sworn to at the Osun State Ministry of Justice, that after her stepfather impregnated her, the pregnancy was aborted.
During a meeting with the officials of the NGO, the victim said that the matter was reported to her teacher in school after about four years of constant abuse by her stepfather.
During an alternative dispute resolution meeting organised by WIP, the victim explained that Femi started “having s£xual int£rcourse 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 int£rcourse 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 de@d.
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.
At the meeting, Femi, who claimed to be a commercial motorcyclist besides 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 by the mother of the victim on her behalf, read, “My daughter went to the human rights organisation, World Institute for Peace, and reported a case of def!lement and ab0rtion levelled against her stepfather, Femi, early in August 2024
“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.”
The chairman of the NGO, Lamina Omotoyosi, urged parents to ensure the safety of their children especially, from close family members and relations, lamenting increasing cases of incest in the state.
