A state High Court in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, has sentenced a 41-year-old man to 17 years imprisonment for raping and impregnating his 14-year-old daughter.
The convict, Baridapsi Needem, was prosecuted for rape, Punch newspaper reported on Saturday.
The newspaper, however, did not state when the court sentenced the man.
The survivor gave birth to a baby girl while the matter was pending in court.
The prosecuting counsel, Pere Egbuson, a deputy director in the Bayelsa State Ministry of Justice, told the court that investigations revealed that the convict began raping his daughter when she was seven.
The convict, Mrs Egbuson said, started by inserting his fingers into the survivor’s vagina and later followed up with having sex with her in 2020, and impregnated her in 2022.
Satisfied with the evidence, the judge, D.E. Adokeme, held that the prosecution had credible evidence and referenced the DNA result, which revealed a 99.99 per cent positive that the convict was the father of the baby girl that his daughter gave birth to.
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Justice Adokeme said the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that Mr Needem committed the offence and, therefore, sentenced him to 17 years imprisonment.
Addressing reporters after the judgment, Mrs Egbuson said that the verdict will serve as a deterrent to others who engage in such acts, and added that the court has sent a strong message that it will not tolerate such acts.
She commended the state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Biriyai Dambo, for his immense support in ensuring that the DNA analysis was carried out to aid the prosecution in pursuit of justice in the case.
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The convict, according to Punch newspaper, hails from Ogani Wily Kaira Community in Ogoni in Rivers State.
Members of the state gender advocacy group – Gender Response Initiative Team – reported the convict to the police in 2022 after a concerned neighbour noticed that the survivor was five months pregnant amidst suspicion that he (the father) was responsible for the pregnancy.
Mr Needem reportedly replaced his deceased wife with his 14-year-old daughter who was in JSS3 and was sleeping with her on his matrimonial bed while her two younger brothers were made to sleep on the floor, according to the newspaper.
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