A man Uzochukwu Okoli, has been arrested for allegedly forcing his 16-year-old daughter to marry a 34-year-old Chinedu Nweke, just as the Anambra State Government vowed to ensure the prosecution of the father.
Penpushing reports that, the arrest of the father followed a report made by the daughter to the Commissioner of Women and Social Welfare, Ify Obinabo, adding that her father and the man she was forced to marry were maltreating her.
The media aide of the commissioner Chidinma Ikeanyionwu, on Thursday in a statement explained that the girl disclosed that her father began pressuring her and her sisters to marry after he brought them back from Edo State following their mother’s death.
Penpushing further reports that the 16-year-old girl alleged that she was first forced to live with an over 70-year-old man while she was 14, but would later run back to her father’s house, and thereafter the father later forced her to marry a 34-year-old man.
The daughter in a video clip uploaded on Facebook, stressed that life with Nweke had been tough because he allegedly beat her and sometimes forced his urine down her throat, a development that compelled her to run away with her nine-months-old baby.
“When I got home, my father said I should go back to him (my husband) after I narrated what had happened. So, I returned (to my husband’s house) and he continued to beat me’, the innocent girl emphaisied
The media aide of the commissioner added in the statement that the father and his illegal son-in-laws had been arrested assuring that both would be arraigned, but did not when the incident happened and the security agency that arrested the duo
Penpushing also reports that Okoli, in the video clip which accompanied the statement, initially claimed that his daughter was 18 years old and not 16 but would later make a U-turn, saying the daughter was 20 years old.
The man in the clip denied allegations that he forced his daughter to marry Nweke, but contrary to his claim the first daughter of the man whose name could not be ascertained, in the clip emphasized that their father also forced another of her younger sisters to marry an unnamed 77-year-old man.
Penpushing reports that the first daughter declared that their father usually threatened to eject them from his house if they refused to marry anybody, he brought to them, because he(father) knew they have no where to go
The Commissioner for Women and Social Welfare while calling on parents to stop pushing their children to early marriages gave assurance that the daughters would get justice when their father is arraigned for the offence.
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