A safety guard recognized as Olawale Olarewaju has been sentenced to Life imprisonment by Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Ikeja Sexual Offences and Home Violence Court docket for having sexual activity with a 12-year-old woman.
The decide reportedly criticised the Ikoyi Custodial Centre for the lapses and delay in justice to deliver the defendant, who had been in jail custody for eight years, to court docket.
Justice Oshodi held that the case had been struck out for need of diligent prosecution by Justice Sybil Nwaka (retd) when the custodial centre didn’t produce him earlier than the court docket for arraignment regardless of the issuance of a copy warrant between 2016 and 2019.
“The defendant was within the Ikoyi Custodial Centre and remained there for about eight years from the day of his remand till he was produced earlier than me on January 3, 2023 for arraignment. The proceedings demonstrated gaps within the operation of the Nigeria Correctional Service. It’s mind-boggling to listen to that the defendant has been in Ikoyi Custodial Centre since 2016 however was dropped at court docket for the primary time in 2023. The correctional centre was straight answerable for the defendant’s lengthy interval of awaiting trial and that is appalling.”
In his judgment, Oshodi held that the prosecution proved the elements of defilement with cost quantity LD/2359C/2016 in opposition to the defendant. The decide acknowledged that the survivor, ( now 18 years previous) testified earlier than the court docket that she was 13 years when the incident occurred and that the convict was a safety guard at a development web site.
He mentioned that the survivor instructed the court docket that the convict forcefully had intercourse together with her when she went to fetch water on the web site.
“The prosecutrix gave her testimony and mentioned that she went to fetch water on the development web site the place the defendant (convict) labored when he got here from her again, closed her mouth, and located herself within the room with him. She mentioned that the defendant ‘tore my dress, and forcefully had intercourse with me and I began having pains in my vagina. She testified additional that she knowledgeable her mother and father concerning the incident and her father reported the case on the nearest police station. The prosecutrix additional instructed the court docket that she was taken to Mirabel Medical Centre for examination.”
The decide held that the the proof of the survivor was corroborated with that of her father who was the Prosecution Witness Two. He mentioned the survivor gave a vivid and unshaken testimony of what the defendant did to her.
“I consider her. The defendant’s denial doesn’t maintain water as he admitted figuring out the prosecutrix however made a u-turn throughout cross-examination that he didn’t know her. He additionally admitted that the prosecution got here to the compound to fetch water,” he mentioned
The decide held that Olarewaju contradicted himself and made his evidence-in-chief unreliable.
He thereafter convicted him of the cost and sentenced him to life imprisonment. The decide added that the convict’s identify needs to be entered within the Sexual Offences Register maintained by the Lagos State Authorities.