Policemen attached to the Area G Police Command, Lagos State, have arrested a 36-year-old man, Mr Saka Akonda, for impregnating his wife’s 13-year-old daughter.
The girl was discovered to have been put in the family way by her stepfather, just as his wife, who is the teenager’s mother, is also six months pregnant. Incidentally, the girl is five months pregnant.
Akonda, a furniture maker, residing at Obawole, Iju, Lagos State, was arrested following a complaint filed by the girl’s paternal uncle.
Yesterday, Akonda, who was dragged to Ogba Magistrates’ Court to face the music, said that he was so much in love with his stepdaughter.
The accused said he was shocked that police could arrest him, even after he had settled the matter amicably with the girl’s biological father.
Akonda, a father of two, admitted to have accepted responsibility for the underage girl’s pregnancy, stressing that he was willing and ready to take good care of her. He insisted that he had been doing a lot caring for the girl since she came to stay with him and his wife five years ago.
He said: “Everything would have been okay, but it’s the girl’s father’s brother that is causing problem. He was the person that encouraged the girl’s father to arrest me. Even when my wife said we should abort the girl’s pregnancy, I kicked against it. I was afraid for her life. I don’t want her to die. I have been sponsoring the girl’s education since my wife came with her to my house. Her father appreciated my effort on the girl.”
Akonda said the police officer that arrested him requested for N50,000 to settle the case with the girl’s father, but that he could only cough up N10,000.
He said: “I’m begging the girl’s father to remember that I had been caring for the girl for long. Most times, her father doesn’t care for her.”
Akonda said that his wife left him after he was picked by the police.
The girl’s uncle, Oladele Rasheed, 52, a driver, said that the girl’s mother left his brother’s house five years ago to marry Akonda.
He said: “The man, who impregnated the little girl, married my brother’s wife. The woman abandoned her husband to go and live with this ‘useless’ man, who has impregnated mother and daughter. I want the law to take its due course and punish him for his wickedness. Even if my elder brother backtracks on this matter, I shall not. I would see this case to the end.”
