37-Year-Old Father Rapes Daughter For Seven Years

An 18-year-old teenage girl has cried to the Ogba Magistrate Court in Ikeja, Lagos State, for abuse and several rapes she went through in the hands of her biological father since she was 11.

The girl took her father, 37-Year-Old, Rowland Okajare, to court for raping her for seven years, since she was 11 years old.

She told Magistrate L.A Owolabi, that her father sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions without her mother’s knowledge.

According to her, she gave up to her father’s evil activities as started taking it as normal thing because her mother was not able to resolving the issue.

The girl informed the court that she got fed up with the whole thing when she realized the harm of incest, and rape in school, and decided to share her experience to her Social Studies Teacher, who immediately took the case up.

She said she abandoned her home and moved to a human rights officer’s house (name withheld) who reported the case to the appropriate authorities.

CSP Grace Agboola took charge of the case and arrested the culprit before taking him to court.

 Okajare was arraigned before Magistrate L.A, on 13 March 2023, after he allegedly raped his teenage daughter on 4 January, this year, in his shop in Ikotun axis of Lagos State.

The prosecutor said the offence is punishable under Section 260 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The charge against the accused reads: “That you, Roland Okajere, on January 4, 2023, at your shop at Ikotun Bus Stop, Lagos State, in the Lagos Magisterial District, did rape your daughter, 18, by having sexual intercourse with her without her consent and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 260 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.”

During cross examination, the girl told the court that she was only 11 years old, when her father started defiling her, explaining  that she had confided in her mother countless times to intervene in the situation but she did nothing about it.

“I told my mother countless times of how my father would finger my private parts when we’re at home alone and in his shop but she did nothing about it.

 “It was only the first time I told her that she took her phone and called my daddy while he was in his shop at Ikotun. Nothing changed

“I started seeing it as a normal thing until my social studies teacher spoke against Incest in class,” she said.

The victim’s mother, while under cross-examination denied the knowledge of her husband’s act. She claimed that her daughter had never told her of the father’s actions.

The Magistrate L.A Owolabi, ordered that the defendant, Roland Okajere, be remanded in Kirikiri Correctional Centre for 30 days pending the advice from the Director of Public Prosecution and adjourned the matter till 12 April 2023, for mention.