A 28-year-old man, Babatunde Adeyemi, who was arrested for defiling his five-year-old daughter in Ogun State, tells DAUD OLATUNJI how he was nabbed by the police two years after committing the offence
Are you married?
Yes, I got married in 2016.
How many wives do you have?
Two. I tried to learn tailoring but I couldn’t finish the training because I impregnated my wife and could not tell her to abort the pregnancy. I told my boss (about it) and he advised me to stop coming to work and take care of my pregnant wife.
What do you do for a living?
I am a salary earner and I work at a cocoa processing company in Ijebu-mushin, Ogun State. At first, I received N39,000 as my salary but it was later increased to N50,000.
What is your qualification?
I am a secondary school leaver. I couldn’t study further because there was no money to continue my education.
How many children do you have now and how old are they?
I have two children. One is two years old and the other is five years old.
You were arrested for defiling one of your daughters. Did you commit the offence?
I did.
How did it happen?
On the day (it happened), my daughter was sitting beside me watching cartoons when I asked her to lie down on the bed but before I could return to my right senses, I had already slept with her. I was very scared after realising it.
Where was your wife at the time of the incident?
She went to a police station to help settle a debt I owed.
How did she know about what you did?
When my wife returned, she told me that my attention was needed at the police station, so I went there. However, before I returned home, my daughter told my wife that I defiled her. When my wife asked me about it, I denied it out of fear.
What attracted you to your daughter?
I cannot explain it. I usually bathe her and take her to school. Sometimes, when their mother is tired, I cook for them.
How did your wife feel about what you did?
My wife was very angry because she felt my daughter never makes any false allegations, and I can testify to it that. She (my daughter) is an honest girl. I know her very well. My daughter never lies about things that people do to her. My wife left the house angrily saying that she could not live under the same roof with me. When people asked me about her whereabouts, I lied to them that she just went to stay at her mom’s place for a while because I could not tell them what really happened.
When exactly did it (the defilement) happen?
This thing happened in December 2021 and my wife left me since then. She packed everything and left with my two daughters. I went to her mother’s house and begged her but she refused to return to the house. After a while, I met a girl in November 2022, and later, she became pregnant. I could not tell her to abort the pregnancy, so I told her to keep the pregnancy.
Did you divorce the mother of your five-year-old daughter when you impregnated your second wife?
No. I did not. I visited and begged her to come back to the house. I even took foodstuff to them.
What happened next?
During that time, my wife kept on pressurising me to send money, or she would make life unbearable for me. I begged her to give me some time. She started coming to my house while I was away and threatened to expose me. My neighbours used to tell me that she came to my house to threaten me.
How were you arrested?
I was called by a human rights organisation. It invited me to its office. I went there some days ago. I thought the reason they called me was connected to money. I had been telling anyone who asked me why my wife left me that she left because of our neighbours. So, when the human rights people asked me why we separated I told them the same thing, unknown to me that my wife had already revealed everything to them. They had also conducted a test on my child to confirm whether her claim was true. That was how I ended up at a police station and from there, I was taken to the police headquarters in Eleweran, Abeokuta.
What has been your daughter’s attitude toward you since you committed the crime?
She doesn’t seem to look at me in any strange way because the last time we stayed together was the day that thing happened and since then, they (she and her mother) have left the house. Anytime I visit them, I buy things for them and she doesn’t seem to have any strange looks.
Nothing attracted me to my daughter. The only thing I can sense is maybe it is because of the spiritual sacrifice I was asked to do which I did not complete.
Which spiritual sacrifice?
Yes. They asked me to do it to avoid implications but I’ve done little out of the things I was asked to do. My wife also testified that I don’t smoke or drink. I am a Celestial person.
Is it not a taboo in your community to do what you did to your daughter?
I know that what I did is a taboo. I may say that my first wife got angry with me because I took a second wife and because my second wife is someone she knows; she (my second wife) lives opposite my apartment. But I don’t have anything to do or say since the human rights group insisted that the case must get to court. So, I think only God can help me with this.
Do you think your wife regrets the action she took against you?
It was too late by the time she realised what she had done. I have already been taken to the police. My wife wanted to tell them that she was no longer interested in the case but the human rights activist did not allow her to talk. So, she doesn’t have any choice but to tell them to proceed with the case. I don’t blame my wife because I feel I deserve every bit of what I am facing.
I want the government to temper justice with mercy because I have not done this type of thing before. I am a lively person and no one in my community can testify that I’ve ever done this type of thing. I am not a womaniser, although I was once like that, that was before I got married to my wife, and ever since I got married, I stopped having extramarital affairs. I don’t even have the time for that kind of thing.
