Edo Govt raises alarm over high incidence of defilement in state

*Over 70 cases recorded in 7 months

BY JONATHAN IDIAHI – BENIN

The Edo State Government has posited that, between January and July 2026, over 70 cases of defilement were recorded, with over 50 per cent of such cases perpetrated by fathers of such minors.

Edo State Commissioner for Women Affairs and Social Development, Eugenia Abdallah, disclosed this during the bi-monthly press conference organised by the state Ministry of Information and Strategy.

The commissioner, flank by Kassim Afegbua, Commissioner, Ministry of Information and Strategy, and the Managing Director, Edo State Geographic Information Service (EdoGIS), Dr Innocent Bello, said that the minors defiled by their fathers were between the ages of 2 and 10.

“Mostly, 50 per cent are abused by their own fathers, with the victims ranging from 2 to 10 years. For instance, there is a little girl currently in our custody who was impregnated by her father. She is just 14 years old and is eight months pregnant as we speak. The case was reported to us by a neighbour.

“When we asked her about her father, she told us that she had lost her father and pleaded with us not to have him arrested. Meanwhile, she is the only person who can tell us where her father is,”Abdallah added.

Commissioner Abdallah, expressed the state government’s commitment to ensuring that vulnerable citizens are not merely identified but protected; adding “that survivors are not merely heard but supported; that women are not merely trained but provided opportunities for economic advancement; and that social-protection programmes increasingly produce measurable outcomes.”

In his address, the Managing Director, EdoGIS, while giving reason for delay in release of land documents to applicants said “what is responsible for most the delay in land documents processing is as a result of detection of fake application documents in many cases, and that includes survey plans, task clearance, fake ID, etc.”

Also speaking on steps taken by the state government to protect residents of the state, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Prince Kassim Afegbua reiterated the government’s ban on movement of motorcycles in the Benin metropolis, adding that it’s for security reasons.

“We are not pretending about it. The reason why this was done was purely for security reasons. And the kind of reports we get on a daily basis have become a security concern to us. People use Okada (motorcycle) to kidnap people, to do robbery. They carry their passengers, they take them to a lonely place and dispossess them of their belongings,” Afegbua stated.

In a related development, an Ikeja Chief Magistrates’ Court on Friday ordered the remand of a 50-year-old man, Vitalis Chima, at the Kirikiri Correctional Centre for allegedly defiling his 14-year-old daughter.

The defendant, an unemployed resident of No. 11, Olowoporoku St., Mafoluku, Oshodi, faces charges of defilement and sexual assault.

The Chief Magistrate, Mrs C.M. Kushanu, did not take the defendant’s plea.

She ordered his remand at the Kirikiri Correctional Centre pending legal advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).

She adjourned the case until Sept. 24 for the DPP’s advice.

The Prosecutor, ASP Adegoke Ademigbuji, stated that the defendant committed the offences between March 2025 and April 2026 at his residence.

Ademigbuji stated that the defendant repeatedly sexually assaulted his daughter whenever his wife, a trader, was away from home.

He noted that the victim eventually confided in her mother.

The prosecutor stated that the offences contravened Sections 137 and 261 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.