Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Monday sentenced a security guard, Olawale Olarewaju, to life imprisonment for defiling a 12-year-old girl.
This was disclosed on the X handle of the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency on Tuesday.
According to the DSVA, Olarewaju’s name will be registered in the Sexual Offenders Register as maintained by the Lagos State Government.
In his judgment, Oshodi held that the prosecution proved the ingredients of defilement with charge number LD/2359C/2016 against the defendant.
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The judge stated that the survivor (now 18 years old) testified before the court that she was 12 years old when the incident happened and that the convict was a security guard at a construction site.
He said that the survivor told the court that the convict forcefully had sex with her when she went to fetch water at the site.
The judge held: “The prosecutor gave her testimony and said that she went to fetch water at the construction site where the defendant (convict) worked when he came from her back, closed her mouth, and found herself in the room with him.
“She said that the defendant ‘tore my clothes, and forcefully had sex with me and I started having pains in my vagina.’
“She testified further that she informed her parents about the incident and her father reported the case at the nearest police station.
“The prosecution further told the court that she was taken to Mirabel Medical Centre for examination.”
Justice Oshodi said that the evidence of the survivor was corroborated by that of her father who was the Prosecution Witness Two.
He said the survivor gave a vivid and unshaken testimony of what the defendant did to her.
The Judge held: “I believe her.
“The defendant’s denial does not hold water as he admitted knowing the survivor but made a u-turn during cross-examination that he did not know her.
“He also admitted that the survivor came to the compound to fetch water.”
The judge held that Olarewaju contradicted himself and made his evidence-in-chief unreliable.
He thereafter convicted him of the charge and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
According to the prosecution, the offence contravened Section 137 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
Justice Oshodi said that the convict’s name should be entered in the Sexual Offences Register maintained by the Lagos State Government.
The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency has reiterated the state’s zero-tolerance stance and insists that there is help for survivors even as “we remain committed to ensuring perpetrators are held accountable for their actions”.
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