A Chief Magistrates’ Court sitting in Port Harcourt on Thursday remanded in custody a 41-year-old man, Michael Akpan, for allegedly raping his four biological daughters.
It was gathered that the accused stood the risk of being sentenced to life imprisonment for allegedly having unlawful carnal knowledge of his four daughters, who were said to be two, seven, 11 and 17 years old respectively.
Akpan, who was arraigned on three counts bordering on rape, was said to have committed the crime in the Borokiri Sand Field area of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, in his apartment.
The charges read in part, “That you, Michael Akpan, sometime in April 2018, at Borokiri Sand Field, Port Harcourt, within the Port Harcourt Magisterial District, did have unlawful carnal knowledge of (name withheld) without her consent, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 358 of the Criminal Code, Cap 37, Vol. II, Law of Rivers State of Nigeria, 1999.
“That you, Michael Akpan Isaiah, sometime in May, 2018, at Borokiri Sand Field, Port Harcourt, within the Port Harcourt Magisterial District, did have unlawful carnal knowledge of (name withheld) aged seven, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 218 of the Criminal Code, Cap 37, Vol. II, Law of Rivers State of Nigeria, 1999.”
No lawyer stood for the accused even as he (Akpan) was not allowed to take his plea due to the nature of the offence.
Representative of the Federation of International Women Lawyers in Rivers State, Fortune Ndah, who was in court, said the accused had been raping his daughters for the past three years.
Ndah added that the crime was exposed after Isaiah’s son caught him in the act, adding that the accused was always beating his victims before having his way sexually with them.
The Chief Magistrate, Zinnah Alikor, said the action of the accused was an abomination and a display of wickedness.
Blaming the mother of the children, who she also described as a victim, for failing to have a close relationship with her children, the chief magistrate maintained that the mother would have found out the atrocity of her husband earlier.
Alikor directed that the case file be transferred to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions for legal advice, even as she added that the court had no jurisdiction over the matter.
While adjourning the matter indefinitely, the chief magistrate directed that the accused be remanded in custody.
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