An Ikeja Domestic Violence and Special Offences Court, Monday heard the sordid details of how a driver, Gabriel Ogbar, allegedly raped his three daughters multiple times for several years.
Two of the daughters (names withheld) told Justice Abiola Soladoye that the incidents occurred from when they were 10 and 12 years old, at their home at Oke-Ogbe, Atura area of Badagry, Lagos State.
They testified against Ogbar at the continuation of his trial for the offences.
Sister A, now 23, told the court that she endured sexual abuse from her father for five-years from the age of 12 until she was 18-years-old.
She said: “When I was 12-years-old, I was living with my mum and dad, my mum is not always around because she is a businesswoman and my father was a driver at the time.
“Whenever my mother was not around, he would come to me at night with a knife or screwdriver or something harmful to threaten me to open up to sleep with me, because I was scared at the time, I gave in to his requests to sleep with me.
“It continued for a very long time, I could not tell anyone about it because I was scared. When I got to the age of 18-years, there was a night he came to me but I ran to my mum’s pastor who is Mrs Ochiegbu and I reported the event to her.
“I hid in her church and my dad came and was saying that I should start coming home but unknown to him, I had explained everything to them at church, I waited at the church till my mother returned and I went home with her.
“The next day, the pastor called my mother and told her everything I told her, she was upset and did not know what to do.”
Sister A said that her father continued to ask her for sex and she had to run away from home for a year.
She said she thought the abuse at home had stopped until her older sister (Sister B) caught their father defiling their 13-year-old sister.
“I and my older sister (Sister B) went for a vigil. My father did not allow our younger sister to go for the vigil. My older sister said she had a funny feeling and needed to go home to check on our younger sister.
“When she got home everywhere was quiet and, being suspicious, she went to the window to peep and she saw my dad trying to rape our younger sister. He had just finished fingering her.
“My older sister shouted and ran back to the church to report what happened, I and my older sister went back to the house to get our younger sister out of the house.
“He started attacking us and we started fighting him too. Our younger sister ran out and we told her to go to the church until my mum returned, because she comes late.
“We reported to our mum and asked our younger sister how long it had been going on and she explained that it had been a very long time he had been doing it to her and that she told her uncle at school,” Sister A said.
She added that the abuse was reported to Andrew Ogbar, the defendant’s brother, who threatened them that they should not testify against their father.
Sister B, who is 25-years-old, testified that the sexual abuse from their father started when she was 10-years-old.
She said nobody believed her when she reported the abuse to the police.
“When it started, he threatened that he will kill me if I told anyone, because he used to scare me. I used to run away from home to stay with my friends and my mum never knew about it.
“One day he was beating and threatening me, I could not take it anymore and I again ran away from home. He was pursuing me and I ran to the police station at Iba.
“The police asked me what happened and I told them what happened, the police thought I was lying because my father was pursuing me.
“The police caught him; he denied my allegations and said that it is because I ran away from home that is why I made up the allegations. The police believed him,” Sister B said.
She said the family moved to Atura in Badagry and the sexual abuse continued. Sister B also gave insight into the night she caught her father defiling her 13-year-old sister.
“I looked through the window and saw my father sleeping with my little sister. I went into the house and caught my father coming out of the room he shares with my mum.
“I saw my little sister shaking and crying and my father ran out immediately he saw me, asking me why I was back home from the vigil, and I thought to myself that ‘this man thinks I don’t know what is going on.”
“I asked my younger sister what happened and she said that daddy just finished sleeping with her. I was angry and provoked. I shouted because I wanted the whole street to know what was going on,” Sister B said.
Sister B said following the revelation that their father was also defiling their youngest sister, their father became aggressive, threatening the sisters and their mother.
“The threats were too much. My father hit my mother with a stick and wanted to burn her alive with fuel.
“We reported him to the Marogbo Police Station but he kept evading arrest until the police caught him.
“When the police saw the injuries on my mum’s hand from my father, they believed us and that is when we were taken from one court to another,” she said.
Under cross-examination by defence counsel, Mr Peter Odoeme, Sister B noted that she caught her father defiling their 13-year-old sister in July 2015.
Last February 25, the youngest sister (name withheld) gave evidence in private about the alleged defilement.
The press and members of the public were asked to leave the courtroom during the third sister’s testimony because she was a minor.
Following the sisters’ testimonies, Justice Soladoye adjourned till May 23 for continuation of trial.