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.
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.
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