Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
Forty–eight-years old Femi Onifade accused of defiling two of his daughters has denied having carnal knowledge of the girls.
Onifade, while being paraded before journalists yesterday, said it was impossible for him to rape his biological children because it was a taboo in Yoruba land.
The suspect admitted that he had issues with his wife which made him to send her parking, noting that the children cried during the night as alleged by his neighbours because they were missing their mother.
Onifade said he personally went to the Palace of the Deji of Akure to swear an oath if he was involved in the defilement of his children.
“I used to have quarrel with my wife. We had a clash at about 11pm and because of curfew I didn’t want her to take the children with her. I insisted the children remain with me. My wife left and did not come back. I went to her family to report and her family begged me.”
He said the wife came back two days later and asked him about what happened to the children when she saw their vagina.
“I saw that she had stripped them naked. My wife accused me of sleeping with the children. I said I could not have done it because it is a taboo in Yoruba land. I am not happy because I was accused of what I did not do. I went to the Palace to swear to an oath for people to believe me.
“I don’t drink and I don’t smoke. It is a lie. I cannot sleep with my children. The rape could have been from outside and not me.
“The children were crying because they did not see their mother that night. My children used to cry whenever my wife and I are fighting. It was a neighbour that told my wife that one of the girls cried till day break,” he said.
But his wife, Tope Onifade, who vowed that nothing would make her return to her husband, said her husband told her it was dysentery in their daughters’ vagina when she raised alarm on what she saw.
Tope said the children told her that their father inserted something into their vagina and also put his mouth into them. She said they have been married for 11 years.
According to her, “the day we had quarrel, my husband did not allow me sleep in the house. I asked neighbours to beg him for me but my husband said I should go. He did not allow me take any of my daughters. I had to find somewhere to sleep. The next day, the neighbours called me to tell me that one of our daughters cried all through the night.
“It was the neighbour that begged me to come back home. I came back and in the night I noticed something in one of the child’s private part. I asked my husband and he told me it was dysentery. I woke the eldest daughter and asked her what was it inside the little daughter. She said it was their father. The children said their father used to put something inside their private part.”