A 44-year-old man, Oto Edet, will spend the rest of his life in jail for having illicit sexual relations with a neighbour’s nine-year-old girl (name withheld).
At the Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court in Lagos, where the sentence was handed down on Tuesday, Justice Abiola Soladoye held that the prosecution had proven the one-count charge of defilement against Edet beyond all reasonable doubts.
According to reports, the State Counsel, Ms Abimbola Abolade, called three witnesses through whom four exhibits were tendered in evidence against the convict.
The defence, however, did not call any witnesses and rested on the prosecution’s case.
Abolade informed the court that the convict committed the offence between 2020 and 2021 on Solomon Toriola Street, Abaranje, Olorun in Lagos.
According to the prosecution, the offence contravenes Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
In giving judgment in the case. Soladoye described Edet as a pathological liar and a disgraceful neighbour, who exhibited unwholesome conduct by descending so low as to rape his neighbour’s daughter.
The judge said: “The survivor gave clear and compelling testimony before this court, recounting how the defendant had unlawful sexual intercourse with her on numerous occasions.
“She stated in her evidence, ‘He has put his penis in my bumbum before, and that was when his wife gave birth.’
The minor had been sent to sweep the compound but failed to return after a while.
“Her mother began searching for her, and upon noticing her slippers outside the defendant’s door, she knocked and eventually found the survivor naked behind his door,” the judge said, adding that the prosecution presented compelling evidence against Edet.
She, therefore, convicted and subsequently sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Soladoye also ordered that his name be entered into the Lagos State Sexual Offenders Register.
She advised parents and guardians to be more vigilant in raising and monitoring their children.
The judge also called on stakeholders in the justice sector to continuously promote the message of zero tolerance for sexual abuse.
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