- Police arrest suspects, begin probe
An underage girl (name withheld) has narrated how her father and her school gateman allegedly abused her sexually for months.
The girl, aged 17, an SS3 student of Baptist Girls High School, Gbodofon Area of Osogbo, capital of Osun State, in an interview, accused her father, identified as Mr. Adepoju, of sexually molesting her whenever she sleeps at night.
The Point findings revealed that the girl has been living with her parents at a hostel located within the school.
Adepoju, it was gathered, works as a gardener for the Baptist Church Convention which is located close to the secondary school her daughter is attending.
Recounting her traumatic ordeals in the hands of her father, the girl explained that Adepoju would bring out his penis and ordered her to be caressing it, adding that whenever she declined, he would flog her mercilessly in the dead of the night.
She said it got to a time neighbours would be making inquiries as to the screams and pleadings they heard at night and that having received several warnings from her father against divulging her hurtful experiences, she would tell those who cared that she acted wrongly and her father was disciplining her.
Further findings by The Point in the school revealed that oftentimes, the girl would appear in class with bruises all over her face and body.
“Sometimes, she comes to school with a swollen face and if we ask her, she would either say she fell down or that her father disciplined her,” one of the teachers in the school who did not want to be named said.
The girl, while speaking further, disclosed that she has been suffering seizure since her infancy, adding that during her sad encounter with her father, she would suddenly develop seizure due to panic and that she would not know what her father had done to her after he might have brought out his penis.
According to her, the alleged sexual molestation started last year and Adepoju molested her severally by fondling her breasts and touching her private parts.
“I had summoned the courage to tell my mother one day and she did not believe me. I told her my father used to come inside my room at night, touch my breasts, bring out his penis and asked me to tough it. She said maybe I was dreaming. There was a time my mother developed a serious ailment and traveled to another state for a cure, my father persisted and started coming into my room. Anytime I refuse to do what he asks me to do, he will bring wire and start flogging me,” she lamented.
In December, 2024, the student, whom The Point gathered might be living with intellectual disability, said she could not endure the abuse again.
“My mother got to know I was telling the truth after she saw what I wrote on my jotter. I wrote ‘I hate my father.’ When she returned from her trip, she questioned me on why I wrote that and I explained to her. I discovered that she confronted my father about it. But, after a while, he continued pestering me and coming into my room most nights,” she disclosed.
Meanwhile, life became more pathetic for the teenager after an aged man who is manning the gate of her school took advantage of her intellectual condition and allegedly had sexual intercourse with her repeatedly inside the gate house.
She recounted that the gate man, who should be a septuagenarian, lured her with the sum of N500 into a room beside the school gate and had sexual intercourse with her.
“Baba Gate (gateman) called me one day and said he wanted to be taking care of me and that he liked me. He gave me N500 and slept with me inside the gate house. There was another time he saw me passing through the gate and he called me and gave me N1000. He also slept with me. I think he has done that about four times before I started avoiding him,” the minor said.
Following her revelations and through the interventions of some human rights activists in the state, Adepoju and the gateman were apprehended by personnel of the Criminal Investigation Department, Osun State Police Command last Wednesday.
Confirming their arrest to The Point when contacted on the telephone, the Police Public Relations Officer of the command, Adeola Adeoye, said the two men have been detained and added that the matter is being investigated.
