Trivails of siblings raped by their dad for three years

At the end of a rugged street in Ikotun area of Lagos, house No 40, a gated storey building stands shoulder to shoulder with other houses, bearing the signs of age and numerous tenants. But in this building inhabited by an elderly landlord, Mr. Sikiru Okunola along with his elderly wife, Bose, and their tenants, one of the greatest crimes a father can commit against his own child, has happened. Pa Okunola and his wife, who were both alarmed when they were hinted about an incestuous act of one of their tenants, summoned his children, 14-year-old Bisi and 16-year-old Biola to confirm from them whether it was true that their father had been violating them. The two girls, who showed signs of advanced puberty, sat down on one of the landlord’s couches. Biola, the fair and the older girl seemed guarded and a little quiet as she sat down in a pair of shorts. Her darker sister, Bisi, on the other hand, sat down with a resolute expression. As Bisi sat with her palms together, wedged in between her knees, she could have passed for any other innocent adolescent girl. Unfortunately, that innocence has been snatched from her by none other than their bricklayer father, Omoyori Adebayo. It all began in 2012, when Bisi was in Basic Five. She has just been promoted to Junior Secondary Class 2. Bisi sighed when she launched into her story, as her demeanour did not betray any particular emotion. This was a story she was dying inside to share. The first time she told this story to a neighbour she confided in, she was told never to tell anybody again. The second time was just a few days ago before our correspondent’s visit, when the case became a family issue. She and her sister were surrounded by unsympathetic family members, who simply told them to let the matter go and forgive their father. Bisi said, “One night when I was in Primary Five (Basic Five), I realised I could not breathe in the middle of the night and I woke up, I saw my daddy lying on top of me. “I first thought it was a dream. But when I realised that I was actually awake, I pushed him away from me. He had removed my pants. I could not say anything. But I could not sleep again. I was so afraid of falling asleep. “Since that day, I have caught him on top of me many times than I can count. He never says anything. When I wake up, I just push him away and he goes back to sleep. I usually tell him, that Daddy, this is an abomination. But still, he continues doing it. “Sometimes I only know he had done something to me when I wake up and feel pain in my private part. Other times, I just know when I see sperm coming out of my private part.” Bisi’s case has become an addition to the rising statistics on child sexual abuses perpetrated by victims’ fathers in Nigeria. Like an epidemic that continues to defy solutions, cases of fathers sexually abusing their children continue to crop up, staring the country’s laws in the face. Adebayo, a Kogi-State indigene, lives in a one-room apartment with his three daughters. He leaves some money for their feeding anytime he goes out to do his bricklaying job. The girls’ mother died a few years ago The youngest of the girls has been taken in by one of their father’s siblings after the family got wind of what was happening. But Bisi and Biola insisted their father had not touched their sister before. Bisi said she and her elder sister could not tell anybody what was going on in their house. But when she could no longer contain the secret, she had to tell a neighbour. “When I told our neighbour, she said I should not tell anyone about it. So, I could not speak out against my daddy. I feel sad that my father sleeps with me all the time. I don’t understand why one’s father would be doing such a thing,” Bisi said. But it seems such secrets do not stay hidden for long. Within the compound, a neighbour, whom the girls befriended was about to send Biola on an errand one afternoon. As she opened the door to their apartment, she noticed the girl