Justice Abiola Soladoye of a Lagos Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court has convicted and sentenced a man, Oluwafemi Asekeji, to life imprisonment for the defilement of his biological daughter. Asekeji was sentenced to life imprisonment after he was found guilty of having unlawful sexual intercourse with the 14-year old.
The judge, yesterday, held that the action was against the law of nature, saying: “It’s a case of incest that should never be heard of.”
Justice Soladoye also held that the prosecution was able to discharge its case by proving the ingredients of defilement, that the victim was a minor, that she was defiled, and that the convict was the one that defiled her.
The judge future upheld the testimony of the 75-year-old father of the convict, who told the court that Asekeji is his son and father of the victim.
The septuagenarian had told the court that his son defiled his granddaughter by having unlawful sexual intercourse with her. According to the judge, the testimony of the survivor was that she was 12 years old when her father sexually abused her.
The survivor had, in her testimony, told the court that she was at home on June 11, 2020, when her father who was drunk, came in and asked her to enter the house and then instructed her to lie on the couch. Later, he asked her to lie on the bed.
She further narrated that her father asked her to take off her clothes and then had sex with her.
“He laid on me and put his penis in my vagina, and then he took videos of me and threatened to show the video to people if I dared tell anybody what happened. After he was done, he asked me to go and add salt to water and drink it. I couldn’t tell anyone earlier because he threatened to kill me if I did,” she said.
The judge also said that the medical doctor at Mirabel Medical Centre who examined the victim on June 15, 2020, said the survivor told him that her father had sexual intercourse with her several times until the last time when he was arrested
“The doctor who conducted an examination on the survivor said the bruises on her vagina could be caused by penis and finger. He also noted that the survivor’s hymen was broken,” the court said.
Justice Soladoye also analysed the testimony of the convict’s mother who is a petty trader. In her testimony, the mother said on the fateful day, when she returned from the market, she saw blood on the pant of her granddaughter and then asked her what had happened.
“She said her granddaughter told her that she was having stomach pain and that her father gave her something to drink, and then told her the incident that occurred.”
The survivor’s grandmother told the court that they had to go and make a report at the Meiran Police Station, after which the convict was arrested.
The convict’s brother, in his testimony, told the court that Asekeji had been causing problems in the family and had been arrested before.
In his defence, the convict denied having sexual intercourse with his daughter. He said that he doesn’t live with his parents but has unfettered access to the house, and that his daughter lives with his parents.
But in her verdict, Justice Soladoye said: “The survivor identified her biological father who has had sexual intercourse with her several times.”
Apart from identifying Asekeji as her father, other witnesses confirmed the evidence of the survivor.
“Circumstantial evidence, medical report, evidence of the grandmother, the grandfather and even the evidence of the survivor’s uncle all point to the convict.”
The judge, therefore, pronounced him guilty as charged and sentenced him to life imprisonment. She ordered that the convict’s name be registered in the Lagos State Sexual Offences register.
Asekeji was arraigned before the court on a one-count charge of defilement. His offence was contrary to Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.
The prosecuting counsel, Ms Abimbola Abolade, had told the court that the incident happened on June 11, 2020, at about 11:09 p.m., at the Meiran area of Lagos State.
The convict pleaded not guilty and trial commenced. During trial, the prosecution called five witnesses and closed its case on December 6, 2022 while the convict testified for himself.
The post Man bags life jail for defiling 14-year-old daughter appeared first on Guardian Nigeria News.
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