Our reporter
A septuagenarian, Okpuite, was banished yesterday from Nnewi community, Anambra State, for allegedly impregnating his 20-year-old daughter and selling one of her twin babies.
The man and his daughter were tied with palm fronds and publicly paraded on the streets of Nnewi. The suspect, who hails from Okigwe, Imo State, had lived in Nnewi with his wife, Babiana, for 38 years, and they have nine children.
It was gathered that Okpuite took advantage of the mental impairment of his daughter, Ifeoma, and had canal knowledge of her in the past eight years, without anybody knowing he was responsible of her pregnancies. Luck, however, ran out on him when the daughter spilled the beans by telling the world that her father had been impregnating her and refused to leave her alone.
Mrs Ebele Nzegwu, a resident of Amiriba Okofia-Otolo Nnewi, where the man lived with his family, told Daily Sun that Ifeoma confessed in the public that her father was responsible for all her pregnancies.
Nzegwu said: “At about 10am today (yesterday), the girl was shouting on top of her voice, saying that her father has been impregnating her and had sold one of her twin babies. The girl was pregnant three times. In her first pregnancy, she gave birth to twin babies, a boy and a girl but they said she lost the male child, but today, she is saying that her father sold the baby.
“In her second pregnancy, she gave birth to a baby boy, and she is pregnant again. She is saying that her father was responsible for all her pregnancies. That is what she said.”
A youth from the village, Nnanna Uzoka, who also confirmed the incident, said once the community heard about it, the decision was immediately taken to banish the family from the town.
“We took him to the palace of Igwe Orizu III where we notified the palace of the abomination that took place. We have the nod of the palace to banish him and we have done that. We parked all their belongings into a truck and sent them out of the town. What took place is an abomination, which must not be allowed to continue,” he explained.
A source from the palace of Igwe Orizu III, who preferred not to be named, stated that incest would not be tolerated in Nnewi land.