From Stanley Uzoaru,Owerri
A 40-year-old man, Mr Reuben Chibueze, has been arrested by officers of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) for allegedly forcefully having carnal knowledge of his 16-year-old step daughter.
Parading the suspect before newsmen in Owerri on Saturday, the state NSCDC commandant, Mr Michael Ogar, disclosed that Chibueze had been in the act of battering his wife before eventually sending her packing to pave way for his lust and desires to have his ways with the victim.
After raping her, the commandant said, he threatened the girl with a knife, saying he would kill her if she mentions the act to anyone.
“We gathered that Mr Chibueze battered his wife severally and sent her away from the home on one fateful evening before proceeding to have carnal knowledge of his stepdaughter, after threatening to stab her if she refused him access to her body,” Ogar said.
Also, speaking on the incident, mother of the victim, Mrs Chioma Chibueze, who described her husband as a “serial abuser,” noted that he had attempted to rape her two years ago when he was caught in the act, but he pleaded for the matter to remain discreet after promising not to indulge in it again.
Similarly, Ogar paraded two other suspects, Amarachi Emmanuel and Chinenye Ejimonye arrested for alleged child trafficking and child battering respectively.
He alleged that while Emmanuel collected huge sum of money for trafficking a child, Ejimonye constantly battered his house help.
He said that the suspects who were arrested based on intelligence, were being investigated and would soon be handed over to the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) for onward prosecution.