The Lagos State Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court, Ikeja, presided over by Justice Abiola Soladoye on Tuesday sent a 44-year-old man, Oto Edet, to life imprisonment over the defilement of his neighbour's nine-year-old daughter, (name withheld).
Delivering judgment on the criminal charge slammed against the convict by the Lagos State Government (LASG), the judge held that the prosecution proved the one-count charge of defilement against Edet.
While declaring that Edet was a pathological liar and a dirty neighbour who should be ashamed of the hideous act, Justice Soladoye insisted that the convict exhibited an
unwholesome conduct by descending so low as to have unlawful sexual intercourse with her neighbour's daughter.
The judge said, “He is a dirty neighbour who was found boxer down with her neighbour's daughter being naked.
"The survivor was lucid in her evidence while testifying before this court as to how the defendant had unlawful sexual intercourse with her on numerous occasions.
"The survivor maintained in her evidence that 'he has put his penis in my bumbum before and that was when his wife gave birth and that said she was ordered to go sweep the compound but did not return after a while.
“She said a search led her mother to the door of the defendant when her pair of slippers was found outside his door, and she was found naked behind the defendant’s door.”
Justice Soladoye also posited that the prosecution successfully proved compelling evidence against Edet, convicted him and subsequently sentenced him to life imprisonment.
Justice Soladoye directed that the convict’s name should be registered in the sexual offences register of Lagos State.
The judge gave advice that parents and guardians should be more vigilant in training their children.
Justice Soladoye equally called on stakeholders in the justice sector to continually preach the gospel of zero tolerance to sexual abuse.
During the process of the convict’s trial, counsel for the Lagos State Government, Ms Abimbola Abolade, called three witnesses through whom four exhibits were tendered in evidence against the convict.
However, the defence did not call any witnesses and rested on the prosecution's case.
Abolade told the court that the convict committed the offence between 2020 and 2021 on Solomon Toriola Street, Abaranje, Olorun in Lagos.
The offence contravenes Section 137 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015, said the prosecution.
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