Anwana Peter Essien, a prophet, was convicted on Wednesday by Justice Okon Okon of the Akwa Ibom State High Court to 21 years in prison for raping his 10-year-old stepdaughter.
The accused is a prophet at the Restoration Bible Church in Itiam Street, Uyo, and a native of Afaha Ise in the state’s Ibiono Ibom Local Government Area. It is believed that the crime was committed on August 9, 2019, while the victim’s mother was visiting her and her younger sister at their stepfather’s home in Itiam Street, Uyo, for a holiday.
The 37-year-old prophet testified in court that demons forced him into the conduct, admitting that he had forcibly taken off his stepdaughter’s clothes and had inappropriate carnal knowledge of her.
Delivering judgement on Wednesday, Justice Okon held that the confession was “direct, positive and unequivocal and that the randy stepfather had sexual intercourse with his stepdaughter.”
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The court held that “the parameters established for the proof of rape, have all been satisfied by the evidence of the prosecution witnesses, including the victim and the medical doctor who examined her, fortified by the confessional statement voluntarily made by the accused person himself.”
According to the court, “it is most despicable and depressing, that the supposed man of God overpowered and defiled an innocent child of about ten years who is incidentally, his own stepdaughter.”
Justice Okon described the conduct as “bizarre and degrading” adding that “the defendant lacks any claim of moral rectitude having thrown overboard, the limits of his liberties by shamelessly stripping and polluting the dignity, chastity and sanctity of his stepdaughter’s body and totally disregarding her underage status.”
The court found Essien guilty as charged and accordingly convicted him.
Justice Okon said the 21 years imprisonment was with effect from when the convict was taken into custody in the Custodial Centre, Uyo.
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