Elijah Soneye is not only the father of 17-year-old Eunice Soneye, but also her feared tormentor. The 53-year-old was on 21 October dragged before Mr. A Adenariwo of Ota Magistrate Court, Ogun State, on a two-count charge of maltreating and inflicting grievous bodily injuries on Eunice as well committing indecent molestation and abuse on her.
The court was alarmed to see a frail Eunice with grosteque swellings and deep cuts all over her arms and body. The adolescent girl was helped into the courtroom by her mother, Rebecca, and older sister, Sarah. The looks on their faces spoke of their trauma. Few minutes after, the crowded court room was stricken with fear when Eunice, drained of strength and unable to stand the rigour of the proceedings, simply fainted.
Elijah was alleged to have sexually assaulted Eunice on several occasions, by fondling and sucking her breasts and asking her to massage his genitals. The scruffy looking Elijah pleaded not guilty to the charge and was asked by the magistrate to be remanded in police custody while the case was adjourned till 17 November.
When NEWS magazine visited Eunice in Ota, she lamented her ordeal in the hands of her father. Though she initially claimed that her father only molested but didn't have sex with her, she later confessed that she said so for fear of stigmatization. She described Elijah, a purported prophet and founder of a Cherubim and Seraphim church called New World Covenant Embassy, as cruel and wicked.
She said her sexual enslavement in the hands of her father started when she and her sister, Rebecca left their mother three years ago, to live with their father, a former banker with defunct Savannah Bank. She said the inability of their mother, who is estranged from the father, to cater for them, compelled them to live with their father.
Unknown to them, it was a journey into seclusion, want and cruelty. Eunice, who had just completed her Junior Secondary School examination at the time, dropped out of school on the instruction of her father. She claimed Elijah told her God asked him to stop her schooling.
First to detect their father's evil intention was Sarah, who suddenly showed up at their mother's place. Sarah's reason for leaving was her father's alleged pestering for sex. She refused him. Soon after Rebecca left, Elijah deflowered Eunice and ensured that she was kept in the house as his ready sex doll.
"He started having sex with me in January and he did so repeatedly. He threatened me that I would die if I told anyone and that he was the only one God had directed to have sex with me," she explained amid sobs.
Eunice told NEWS that when the situation became unbearable, she ran away from his house to put up with a woman called Iya Osun, hiding in the place for 15 days before her father found her out and forcefully took her back home.
At home, Elijah tied Eunice up for two days without food, constantly whipping her. On the pretext of going to ease herself, Eunice escaped from her father's hell-hole and trekked several miles, from Sango Ota to Ifo.
Without any money or relative, Eunice sought refuge in a church after narrating her ordeal to them. Few days after, the church asked her to leave for fear of being accused of kidnapping her. She took refuge in another church, but was also asked to leave after seven days. With the help of a good Samaritan, Eunice returned to her mother, who she narrated her predicament to.
Speaking with the magazine, Eunice mother, Rebecca, said she left Elijah because he was cruel to her. "I dared not ask questions or hold any contrary opinion to his, he would beat me up mercilessly. None of my family members could visit me because he said he didnt want to see them and once threw out my mother around 10p.m," she recalled.
Eunice's sister, Sarah, corroborated her mother's remarks, adding that their father was the devil's incarnate. Rebecca cursed and wailed, wishing that her violated daughter gets justice. Rebecca bore Sarah, Eunice and a boy named Michael for Elijah.
Source: News Magazine
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