41-year-old Michael Akpan, who reportedly raped his four biological daughters, was remanded in prison by a Chief Magistrates’ Court sitting in Port Harcourt on Thursday.

The suspects who reportedly had unlawful carnal knowledge of his four daughters, who were said to be two, seven, 11 and 17 years old respectively, stood the risk of being sentenced to life imprisonment after he was arraigned on three counts bordering on rape, which he reportedly perpetrated in his apartment in Borokiri Sand Field area of Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The charges read in part, “That you, Michael Akpan, sometime in April 2018, at Borokiri Sand Field, Port Harcourt, within the Port Harcourt Magisterial District, did have unlawful carnal knowledge of (name withheld) without her consent, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 358 of the Criminal Code, Cap 37, Vol. II, Law of Rivers State of Nigeria, 1999.

“That you, Michael Akpan Isaiah, sometime in May, 2018, at Borokiri Sand Field, Port Harcourt, within the Port Harcourt Magisterial District, did have unlawful carnal knowledge of (name withheld) aged seven, thereby committing an offence punishable under Section 218 of the Criminal Code, Cap 37, Vol. II, Law of Rivers State of Nigeria, 1999.”

Fortune Ndah, the Representative of the Federation of International Women Lawyers in Rivers State, said the accused who had no lawyer representing him due to the nature of the offence, had been raping his daughters for the past three years. According to her, the crime was exposed after Isaiah’s son caught him in the act, adding that the accused was always beating his daughters before having his way sexually with them.

Chief Magistrate, Zinnah Alikor, who said the action of the accused was an abomination and a display of wickedness, also blamed the mother of the children, who she also described as a victim, for failing to have a close relationship with her children, the chief magistrate maintained that the mother would have found out the atrocity of her husband earlier.