The magistrate court in Evbuoriaria Benin City, Edo State, has sentenced a 52-year-old herbalist; Jacob Alonge, to 21 years imprisonment for raping and impregnating his 17-year-old daughter, Gift Alonge.
According to reports, the herbalist who hails from Ososo in Akoko-Edo local government area of Edo State had raped the minor and got her pregnant before she lost her life in a ghastly motor accident.
He was sentenced on a three-count charge of unlawful possession of fetish wrap of the victims’ pubic hair; unlawfully and indecently having canal knowledge of his biological daughter and repeated sexual assault and impregnating her.
The victim, Gift, who was five months pregnant and four others who were helping to prosecute, died in a ghastly motor accident on January 16 this year, when they were travelling to Benin for the judgment.
Other victims in the accident were Miss Rhoda Braimoh, Miss Promise Ezekiel, staff of a nongovernmental organisation; BraveHeart Initiative for Youth and Women (BHI), which has been helping in prosecuting the case, the victim’s maternal uncle, Mr Ukere Adagbogu and the driver of the vehicle in which they were driving, Paul Opashi.
The convict later that day recanted his plea from guilty to not guilty and the case started afresh.
In her ruling yesterday, the magistrate; D I Adamaigbo (Mrs), sentenced Jacob Alonge to five years, two years and 14 years respectively on the three-count charges and they are to run consecutively.
She said; “He consecutively had sex with her, who is his own daughter and got her pregnant and thereby, subjected her to shame and emotional stress, may her soul rest in peace. To serve as deterrent to others, and would be offenders, we are of the opinion that the defendant should not have space in a decent society.”