The Hauts-de-Seine court in France has sentenced former Nigerian footballer, Godwin Okpara, to 10 years’ imprisonment for rape and enslavement of his adopted daughter, judiciary officials said Sunday. Linda, Godwin Okpara’s wife, was sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for acts of torture and barbarism on their adopted daughter, according to the verdict given by the court Friday night. Okpara, a former defender of French premier club Paris Saint-Germain between 1999 and 2001, brought a girl named Tina from Nigeria in 2001, when she was only 13, under the cover of unofficial adoption. The young girl lodged a complaint four years later, in August 2005, after she was found crying in the street in Vesinet district, France. Tina, who was not sent to school, explained to the police that she had been raped by his adoptive father since 2003, and revealed the deplorable living conditions in which she had been kept. ”She woke up every morning at 0600, took the four children to school, did the shopping, cleaned the house, cooked meals and did ironing until late in the night,” said a policewoman who interviewed the adolescent. “She slept in the cellar on a wet bed, under which she put a plank, and was often beaten by the wife with shoes, kitchen utensils and Iron,” she added.
