After her father died when she was an infant, a 12 year old girl named Susan (not her real name) was adopted by her uncle, Anthony Wayas.
Residents of Finima community in Bonny Local Government Area of Rivers State were shocked to discover he had been sleeping with the pre-teen since 2013, when the news broke and attempted to lynch him.
Narrating her story, Susan said“Anthony is a father to me. He is my father’s brother. My father is dead and my mother is in our village at Adamawa State, married to another man now. I don’t go to school. I finished Primary Six and was supposed to start JSS1 but I was not sent to secondary school by my uncle. I usually stay at home to do house chores. I would then take my cousins to school and come back home to work. I would go back to the school in the afternoon to pick them.
“My uncle started sleeping with me in 2013. How it happened was that he would leave for work in the morning and come back in the afternoon while his wife is away at work where she works as a cleaner.
“He would take the children to the big room, asking them to stay there, and would take me to the small room. He would remove my pant and push me on the bed.
“He would then remove his trousers and bring out his manhood. He would then put it inside me and sleep me (sic). I can’t count the number of times it has happened. When I told the wife, she threatened to return me to our village.
“On Saturday, April 19, my uncle asked me to mix hot and cold water for him to take his bath. He took the bucket to the bathroom and asked me to bring his sponge to him. As I took the sponge to him, he dragged me into the bathroom and had sex with me. There were people in the house but he warned me not to shout.
“The following morning, I told one woman in our compound. She, in turn, told someone and when the person interviewed me, he called in the Finima youths. I am surprised that my uncle is denying.”
The uncle denied the allegations.
“I am surprised at what Karen said that I was having sex with her because it is not true. I have a problem with my manhood which has resulted in my inability to make love to a woman.
“I have not been experiencing erection at all. I was told by my doctor that it was caused by syphilis that I once had. He said the sexually transmitted disease was not well treated when I had it. It also resulted in my having zero sperm in my semen which the doctor said would not make me have a baby. I was given Proviron to boost my sperm count.”
The man’s wife, Affinity, startled by the allegations said the niece never mentioned anything to her and that her husband had not slept with her for over a year as a result of erectile dysfunction.
“We have been married for 14 years but, initially, my husband had low sperm count. He married another woman after me but we got pregnant at the same time after several prayers. I have a child and the other woman has two. She has left and I am the one taking care of her children with mine.
“Karen is my husband’s niece. She came to us after her father died and she was just about a year old then. I am confused about the whole issue because my husband had been having weak erection for over a year and had not been able to make love to me. We sought medical help and the doctor recommended some drugs.
“Since the drugs are expensive, we have resorted to prayers. I am not defending my husband but I don’t understand how he was able to have sexual relationship with the girl with his current condition. And Karen did not inform me as she claimed. If she did, I would have admitted it,” the woman said.
A Rivers Police Spokesperson, Grace Iringe-Koko said the case would undergo further investigation and the man would be prosecuted in found culpable.