A 39-year-old father of four, Mfon Jeremiah, who was arrested by the Ogun State Police Command for defiling and impregnating his biological daughter, says he is confounded by his own action because he dreamt he had sex with his estranged wife and daughter’s mother, but woke up to find himself humping his own daughter.
Jeremiah a resident of FIRRO Estate, off Adesan, Mowe Town, was arrested by detectives from Mowe Police Station after his wife reported his shocking revelation by her daughter that the pregnancy she was carrying belonged to her father.
The command’s Police Public Relations Officer, SP Abimbola Oyeyemi, who confirmed the incident, said that the mother told the police that she took her daughter to a hospital where it was confirmed that she was truly pregnant and four months gone.
The report prompted the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Mowe Division, SP Folake Afeniforo, to send detectives to the suspect’s house to effect his arrest.
In an interview with the Nigerian Tribune, Jeremiah confessed to impregnating his daughter but said that he was in a dream and thought he was having sex with his estranged wife who left him about two years earlier, only to discover that it was his daughter he was sleeping with.
The suspect, who hails from Ikot-Abasi in Akwa- Ibom State, said that his wife, a Togolese, left him a couple of years ago.
He said that he had been the one taking care of the four children, three males and a female, since she left.
“I am a driver and my daughter is the second child and the only female among my children. We were all living together,” he said.
Though he refused to disclose what caused a rift between him and his wife, Jeremiah said: “I love my wife so much that even with everything she did, I was expecting her to come and apologize so that we could continue.
“There was no need for her to meet my family members; she just needed to apologize to me and I would know how to address my family members so that she would come back to me and our children.
“She is a Togolese but both of us were born in the same environment in Surulere, Lagos State. We grew up together and got married there.
“When I saw that she was not penitent, I started dating another woman from my state about a year ago. My wife-to-be doesn’t live with us yet because she works in Lagos. She comes home during weekends and goes back because she would resume work on Monday. We have not done our traditional marriage yet but I was making plans to do so this December in the village.
“One day, my four children and I were together on the bed. We used to sleep horizontally for the bed to occupy five of us. They were asking me how my wife and I were going to settle the matter. I made my usual statement of their mother coming with an apology and later slept off.
“I started dreaming and saw my wife coming. I was even saying ‘thank God o, you have come back.’ I didn’t even know that it was a dream.
“I told her to let us go inside and have sex. She responded by saying there was no problem with that as we had been married and had children together. She allowed me and I penetrated her.
“Before God and man, I didn’t know that I was on top of my daughter. I was dreaming that I was sleeping with my wife until I ejaculated. I stood up immediately and saw that I had been sleeping with my daughter. By that time she woke up too. I didn’t know maybe she was not sleeping while I was doing it because it was my wife I was seeing. My daughter pushed me and I woke up. I said I was sorry and really confused. I begged her.
“This happened in July and I did not have sex with her again. I couldn’t even try that again because my conscience was really disturbing me and it was shameful to me.
“I did not inform any of my sons and she did not inform her brothers either. But she was not a virgin when I had sex with her while dreaming.
How the issue was exposed
“My children went to Lagos during the holiday to visit their mother and spent six weeks there. At the time they were supposed to return to resume school activities, their mother did not bring them. She called me and said that the children would no longer be coming to my place; that they would stay with her.
“She called me second time and told me that our daughter was pregnant and pointed me out as the owner. I said to her: ‘What kind of statement is this? Why did you say that kind of thing to me?’ Before i could grasp things, I was arrested.”
The PPRO said that the state Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, had directed that the suspect be transferred to the Anti-Human Trafficking and Child Labour unit of the State Criminal Investigation Department for further investigation and eventual prosecution.
