Court sentences woman to 7 years imprisonment for abducting employer’s 12-year-old niece

 

 

ARINZE NWAFOR, Lagos

 

 

An Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court has sentenced a woman, Chiwendu Owuasoanya, to seven years imprisonment for abducting her employer’s 12-year-old niece (name withheld).

 

Justice Abiola Soladoye, on Monday, held that the prosecution had proved all the ingredients of the charge of child abduction against the convict, Owuasoanya, a saleswoman.

 

Soladoye held that the prosecution witnesses gave truthful evidence and were unshaken in their testimony.

 

She described the convict as an irresponsible liar.

 

The judge said the convict abducted the 12-year-old girl on the third day of work and kept her away for nine days on the pretext that she did not want the girl to be maltreated by her aunt.

 

Soladoye said that the nominal complainant and the investigative police officer who investigated the matter were consistent in their testimony.

 

She commended their evidence.

 

“The defendant was a new shop worker to the complainant and had only worked for three days.

 

“The defendant was deliberate and she admitted taking the child away.

 

The judge called the convict mean and reckless and said she allowed her employer to run from pillar to post looking for the child.

 

Soladoye said, “The defendant is hereby found guilty as the three legs of the ingredients of abduction have been sufficiently proven by the prosecution.”

 

The judge sentenced Owuasoanya to seven years imprisonment after she convicted her of the crime.

 

The counsel to the state, Olufunke Adegoke, presented two witnesses, while the convict testified as a sole witness.

 

Adegoke submitted that the convict committed the offence on June 11, 2022, at 8.00 p.m., in Abule-Ado, Lagos.

 

She told the court that the convict fraudulently and unlawfully abducted the 12-year-old girl from the custody of a woman, Ruth Dunu.

 

The prosecution said the saleswoman’s offence contravened Section 268 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015