Akwa Ibom State Division of the High Court sitting at Okoita community, headquarters of Ibiono local government area has sentenced a cleric, Anwana Peter Essien, to 21 years imprisonment for defiling his stepdaughter, age 10.
The convict, age 37, a native of Afaha Ise in Ibiono Ibom LGA, is said to have had carnal knowledge of the JSS pupil, on 9th August, 2019, when her mother, who filed the case, said she took the victim and her younger sister to spend their holiday with their stepfather in his house at Itiam Street, Uyo, the state capital.
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In his evidence before the court, he said ‘the randy man of God’ had confessed, blaming the demon for pushing him at about midnight, “to forcefully remove the clothes of my stepdaughter and had unlawful carnal knowledge of her.”
“I know the victim of this case. She is my wife’s daughter. In the month of August 2019, she came to my house at Itiam Street, Uyo. I gave her food and she ate. Then, after eating, I told her to remove her clothes, but she refused, and from there, I forced her and removed her clothes. I was the one that used my hands and removed my penis and forcefully inserted into her vagina and had canal knowledge of her. It is true that when I tried to put my penis inside her vagina, my penis was not able to enter her vagina. When I was having sex with her, I did not use any condom,” the convict said.
However, in its judgement, the court headed by Justice Okon Okon held that the confession was “direct, positive and unequivocal that the defendant had sexual intercourse with his stepdaughter.”
The court further held that “it is most despicable and depressing, that the supposed man of God overpowered and defiled an innocent child of about 10 years who is incidentally, his own step daughter.”
Justice Okon described the conduct as “bizarre and degrading”, saying “the defendant lacks any claim of moral rectitude, having thrown overboard, the limits of his liberties by shamelessly stripping and polluting the dignity, chastity and sanctity of his stepdaughter’s body and totally disregarding her womanhood.”
He, therefore, pronounced that the cleric be consigned to prison for 21 years, forcing the convict to cry profusely and begged for forgiveness that with his conviction, his only son would have no one to take care of him.