It was a tragic story that started much earlier, when, John Oyewo, the
67-year-old resident of Manfile community in Upper Gaa Akanbi, Ilorin in
South Local Government Area of Kwara State, and formerly married to one
Yetunde, separated from her to marry another woman, by name, Feyisayo,
in 1992.
Between Yetunde and John, they had a girl, Esther. Then 15, she would go
to stay with her dad, and her new wife, now her stepmother who was a
businesswoman and was often away from home.
One thing led to another and in the course of the visits, an illicit love affair started between father and daughter.
How it started
She recalled the genesis of the sordid affair.
“My father came home one night. I was fast asleep when she woke me up
and asked if I had had my bath. I said no. Then he asked me to bathe
with him and I joined him innocently. While in the bathroom, he started
touching my sensitive parts. Irritated, I Initially I resisted him but
when I could no longer hold it I became aroused and responded to his
touching. We had it right there in the bathroom. Later, it became a
constant thing. I was afraid but because I had nowhere to go, I endured
it.”
The incestuous relationship resulted in Esther’s first pregnancy. She
later gave birth to a child who died shortly after birth under
mysterious circumstance. Still the shameful affair continued. The
innocent girl got pregnant for her dad the second time and had another
child who they christened Oreoluwa.
Reward of sacrilege
This time around family and relations felt that they had had enough of
this nonsense and sent father and daughter packing from their midst by
way of communal ex-communication. That was how the duo left the family
house to settle in their present abode at Manfile area in Upper Gaa
Akanbi.
But while there, the second child who was hale and hearty and had
started walking about, suddenly took ill and died. As if that was not
enough ordeal, the father became afflicted with imbecility and left home
never to be seen again, till today.
As you read this, only God knows where he is. To compound it all,
Esther, now 39, has been afflicted with a strange illness the nature of
which she would not want the public to know. But a Non-Governmental
Organisation (NGO) is assisting her, she said. In tears, she said to
Saturday Sun:
“I thought what I was doing then was right not knowing I have committed a great crime that has ruined my life.”
Experts, clerics speak
Experts reveal that indulging in incest can have disastrous
psychological effect on those involved. Stephen Oni, a psychologist,
warns that, “fathers of any incestuous relationship can have
psychopathic personalities” while “children born out of incest might
start experiencing emotional shutdown when they reach adulthood and this
could result in schizophrenia or multiple personality disorders.”
Imam Abubakre Kamal, an Islamic cleric in Ilorin, recommends death
sentence for anybody who engages in it. “Any father who commits incest
should be killed,” he said. “If they are killed, it will serve as a
warning to others. In Saudi Arabia, for instance, if such crime is
committed, it is outright death.”
Saturday Sun