By Alagie Manneh
A girl, 15, has accused her father of raping her several times leading to her pregnancy.
The girl, who walked into the offices of The Standard yesterday along with her mother, is already nine months pregnant.
“I was living with my father together with my three siblings. He would always come to my room, force himself on me and threaten that if I ever tell anyone he would kill me, dismember me, and put me in a bag and bury me. It would always happen at night, when everyone else is sleeping. He would come into my room and ask one of my siblings whom I shared the bed with, to go into the other room. Once we are alone, he would force himself on me,” she told The Standard.
The girl said at no point was the encounter ever consensual, accusing him of being responsible for the pregnancy.
The distraught young girl said she is committed to go back to school and would have to take the baby to SOS. “I would like to continue my education,” she said.
According to investigations mounted by The Standard, the case had even reached the police with the father charged with incest and bailed.
Our source said he was first detained at Wellingara Police station.
The mother, who had divorced the man and remarried recently, said her ex-husband is now roaming freely in the streets of CRR, where he reportedly fled to since his “illegal bail”.
“At first, I felt sorry for him [the accused] but he made some nasty statements that really angered me and he has to pay for this nasty crime. I will never forgive him for this. He must go to Mile II,” the mother of the girl told The Standard.
Explaining further, she said the man would sometimes lock his daughter in the house for hours, “having carnal knowledge of her”.
The man has denied the grim allegations, The Standard can reliably report, but his ex-wife said even neighbours can attest to his “immoral advances towards her daughter.”
The Commissioner at the Child and Gender Welfare Unit of the police, Ramou Sambou, confirmed the incident to The Standard, saying the case file has even reached the prosecutors and would soon reach the court.
Also speaking on the matter, the national coordinator of the Child Protection Alliance, Lamin Fatty, said: “It’s quite disgusting and sad that our law enforcers are not taking these cases seriously, especially with regard to children’s issues.
How can such a person get a bail, and worse, no one can tell us who bailed him? The Department of Social Welfare should also step up and play its role, but the fact remains, our government is quite complacent when it comes to our children. Justice needs to be served here.”
