'Change my surname!' Teenage girl makes demands after dad raped her

A 19-year-old secondary school girl simply identified as Linda has insisted that her surname be changed after she was allegedly raped by her father.

Linda, while narrating the harrowing experience she allegedly suffered in the hands of her father who she identified as Akanni, said he raped her in 2019, threatening that she would die if she exposed it to anyone.

She spoke in an interview with newsmen at the Lagos State Police Command.

She said, “Words cannot narrate the trauma and pains I suffered.”

Following the rape incidents, Linda is appealing to her mother to change her surname, failure of which she might commit suicide.

She said, “Sometime in 2019, I went to stay with my aunty (paternal) in Ilogbo Ifo, Ogun. My father came to see his sister. There was a day he called me into the room and immediately I got inside he shut the door. He used his hands to cover my mouth and told me not to shout. Even if I had shouted, nobody would have heard me.

“He raped me and told me not to tell anyone or I would die. I kept the rape to myself, but I couldn’t bear it any more. So I spoke up and my mother got to know.

“So I want government to punish him for what he did to me, but he should be made to pay for my university education.”

The girl’s mother, Ayinde Rasheedat, said she brought the matter to the attention of her estranged husband but that he denied it.

“Something terrible happened on 28th December 2019. When Mr Akanni Nurudeen, her father, forcefully raped her and threatened her to keep the secret or die miserably. I got to know this when my daughter asked me to allow her change her surname. She narrated the rape to my sister, Mrs Lateefat, and my sister told me about it.”

When contacted, Mr Akanni denied the allegation, saying, “I never raped my daughter. This is the handiwork of my estranged wife. As I am speaking with you, I am paralysed. I was involved in an accident in November, 2019. That accident paralysed me. The allegation is false and I am hearing it from you for the first time.”