A 42 -year-old stepfather, Oluwadare Joseph, charged with defiling his 16-year-old stepdaughter for seven years was on Tuesday remanded in Kirikiri Prisons, Lagos on the orders of an Ikeja Magistrates’ Court.
Magistrate B.O. Osunsanmi refused the bail application of the accused, and ordered that Joseph be remanded in prison pending advice from the State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
The accused, a resident of Meiran area of Lagos, is standing trial for defilement.
According to the prosecutor, ASP Ezekiel Ayorinde, the accused committed the offence between 2011 and 2018 at his residence.
He said that the accused had been forcefully having sexual intercourse with his 16-year-old step-daughter since she was nine years old.
“The accused had been having canal knowledge of the girl since when her mother married him seven years ago.
“The accused always beat and threaten to kill her whenever she tried to resist him.
“The teenager reported the matter to her mother but she did not take any action.’’
Ayorinde said that the girl ran away from home to avoid constant sexual abuse by the accused.
“The girl ran away from home in order to put an end to the assault.
“When the girl could not be found, her mother reported at the station that her daughter was missing.
“After some days, the girl resurfaced and told the police why she ran away from the house, and that revelation led to the arrest of the accused,’’ the prosecutor said.
The offence contravenes Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (Revised).
The Section prescribes life jail term for defilement. The case was adjourned until May 31.