30th November, 2012
An Oredo Magistrate’s Court sitting in Benin has sentenced a 47-year-old man, Godwin Allu, to seven years imprisonment with hard labour for having unlawful canal knowledge of his daughter.
The accused pleaded guilty to the one-count charge of having canal knowledge of his 12-year-old daughter, Blessing, three times.
The offense is punishable under Section 218 of the Criminal Code Cap. 48 Vol. II of the defunct Bendel State of Nigeria 1976 as applicable in Edo State.
State Counsel, Miss. L. A. Asaka, told the Court that On 20 November, 2012, Mrs. Verlaine Enemaku, reported the case at the charge room of the Central Juvenile Welfare Centre of the Nigeria Police in Benin after being told by the Headmistress of Obaseki Primary School, Benin, that she discovered blood stain on Blessing’s uniform.
The complainant further stated that during interrogation, the victim told the Head Mistress that her father had sex with her three times on different days.
The victim who was admitted and treated at the Benin Central Hospital was later discharged and taken to Cole Orphanage Home for protection.
Delivering judgement in the case, Chief Magistrate P. E. Asemota who expressed satisfaction that the accused voluntarily pleaded guilty to the crime, pronounced him guilty as charged.
“That this convict had carnal knowledge of a 12-year-old child on three separate occasion is bad enough. It is heart-rending that he was doing it with his own daughter, who even had blood stain on her clothes on the day this incest was exposed.”
The Chief Magistrate who observed that cases of sexual offenses were on the increase in her jurisdiction, said it was necessary that the Court joins other stakeholders in taking a serious stand in order to wipe it out “before the society’s moral fabric is completely destroyed.”
“For this reason, the convict must be put out of circulation for some time so that he would not be able to continue with his bestial activities,” the Magistrate said, praying that God would forgive him while in prison.
The Court thereafter sentenced the accused to seven years imprisonment with hard labour and no option of fine.
—JETHRO IBILEKE/Benin