A 63 year old man, Alabi Ibrahim has been re-arraigned before an Abeokuta High Court for allegedly infecting his 13-year-old step daughter with HIV.
The development came to limelight in a medical examination results submitted in court by the Director of Public Prosecution, Mrs O Osunfisan after a case was instituted by the Child Protection Network(CPN).
Osunfisan, who stood for the respondent in the case reference number AB/37/C/14, told the court that the accused infected the innocent victim with the virus after raping the girl.
During cross examination, the accused admitted been HIV positive, but vehemently denied having carnal knowledge of his step daughter. He said he did not know how the girl became infected with the virus.
The accused added that what he knew was that the girl had earlier been sexually abused by a relative of his wife, before he got married to her mother, stressing that he resolved to send the girl packing when he observed that she was wayward and corrupt.
He also told the court that sometimes ago, the respondent was alleged to have invited her siblings to suck her private part adding that at this point he resolved to send her away from his house.
However, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), while presenting the medical reports, which was conducted on November 2012, as exhibits 2 and 3, emphasised that the accused infected the victim with the virus after defiling her.
She also revealed that the accused kept a separate room for the girl in his house to pave way for having regular sex with her.
The DPP drew the attention of the court to the observation that the accused did not allow the siblings to share the same room with the victim, adding that in one of the sex bouts the accused covered the victim’s mouth with pillow so that she won’t cry out.
The victim, in her statement to the court, said her step father had sex with her having lured her into his bedroom under the guise of supervising her school homework.
She said that in the course of the sex, the accused warned her not to tell anyone, ‘else I would die.’
Kizto Roberts, counsel to the accused, during a cross examination also brought a witness, Sakirat Mosaku who told the court that she knew the accused, the wife and the respondent in the case. She confessed that, at a point in time, the wife came to her to raise alarm that her husband had sex with the victim.
The accused further told the court that his wife and step daughter wanted to nail him because of his resolve to eject the girl. He also claimed that his wife confessed to him that she is possessed with demons and that she had transferred the demons into her daughter, which means they cannot be separated.
Justice, A. Akinremi adjourned further hearing for conclusion of defence and address to July 7, 2015.