Court sentences 59-yr-old man to life imprisonment for defiling his two daughters

 

.Court ruled man defiled daughters for nine years

 

ARINZE NWAFOR, GLORIA EZELE

 

An Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court has sentenced a 59-year-old man, Eze Chukwuma, to double life imprisonment for defiling his two daughters for nine years.

 

Justice Abiola Soladoye held that the prosecution sufficiently proved the two-count charge bordering on defilement against Chukwuma.

 

Soladoye said that the testimonies of prosecution witnesses were corroborated.

 

The judge said the prosecution presented valid evidence that was laced, and documented and that the admission of the convict to have had carnal knowledge of his two daughters during cross-examination was crucial.

 

“The defendant’s incestuous relationship with his two daughters, following the death of his wife in 2008, is senseless,” Soladoye said.

 

“The survivors told this court that their biological father had been having sex with them after their mother died during childbirth,” she continued.

 

Soladoye noted that the oldest of the defendant’s victims was nine years old at the time.

 

She noted that despite the children (victims) being taken to their village, and telling their kinsmen about their father’s acts, nothing was done.

 

The judge noted that afterwards, the children returned to Lagos, during which the second child reported to the school after her older sister ran away from home.

 

“She could no longer endure the assault,” the judge said.

 

Following the second child’s report, the school invited the Lagos State Ministry of Education and Social workers which led to the arrest of the convict, while the survivors were taken to an orphanage.

 

“The defendant (an artisan) admitted the act and stated that he was sorry,” Soladoye said.

 

“This is also in his statement which was admitted and marked Exhibit A,” she added.

 

Soladoye ruled that the defendant is “a dirty father who should be locked up for life as his conduct is disgracing.”

 

“The defendant is found guilty as charged and he is hereby sentenced to life imprisonment on each of the two charges,” she said.

 

Soladoye also ordered that the convict’s name should be registered in the Sexual Offences Register of Lagos State.

 

She praised the survivors and their school authorities for speaking up and reporting to the necessary authorities.

 

Lagos State counsel, Olufunke Adegoke, presented five witnesses while the convict testified as a sole witness during the trial.

 

Adegoke submitted that the convict committed the offences between 2008 and 2017 at No. 2 Agbeke St. by Iyana-Era Bus Stop, Ijanikin, Lagos state.