A man will be deported back to Ghana after being stripped of his United States citizenship for abusing his stepdaughter in North Carolina when she was a child nearly two decades ago, officials announced Monday.

Ghana native Prempeh Ernest Agyemang married a U.S. citizen after coming to the country in 1989, according to a Department of Justice press release. His wife had a young daughter who was in fourth grade when Agyemang “began sexually abusing her starting in late 1999 or early 2000,” the release said.

That became the basis for an investigation by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement and the DOJ, which concluded that Agyemang lied in 2000, when, “during his naturalization interview, Agyemang stated that he had never committed a crime or offense for which he was not arrested,” the release said.

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“We will aggressively pursue the denaturalization of individuals who lie on their naturalization applications or lie during the naturalization interview, especially in a circumstance like this one, which involved an alien who repeatedly sexually abused the minor victim on almost a daily basis,” acting Assistant Attorney General Chad A. Readler said in the release.

Agyemang pleaded guilty and was convicted in 2003 of sexually assaulting his stepdaughter in April 2001 while he was considered “a substitute parent or custodian,” the announcement said.

The North Carolina sex offender registry also lists June 1, 2002, as the date of two offenses associated with Agyemang’s 2003 conviction.

State records show Agyemang was living in Wilmington at the time of the conviction, according to DOJ spokesman Don Connelly.

Officials on Aug. 8 entered the order revoking Agyemang’s citizenship, the press release said.

“He has to surrender all of his citizenship documents so he will be deported back to Ghana,” Connelly said in an email to The News & Observer.