Lagos court sentences apprentice to life imprisonment for sexually assaulting employer’s 9-year-old daughter

 

 

ARINZE NWAFOR

 

An Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court has sentenced a man, Godwin Ogboniya, to life imprisonment for sexually assaulting his employer’s 9-year-old daughter.

 

The court sentenced Ogboniya, an apprentice, to life imprisonment on Monday.a

 

Justice Abiola Soladoye held that the prosecution proved the elements of the one-count charge of sexual assault by penetration against the defendant, Ogboniya, beyond reasonable doubt.

 

Soladoye said the defendant was an “unkind and unworthy employee who embarked on sexual frolicking with the nine-year old girl.”

 

Ogboniya had been living with the survivor’s father for three years.

 

During her judgment, Soladoye noted that the survivor was able to recognise the defendant as her father’s apprentice who lived with them for three years.

 

The judge said that the defendant gave testimony that the survivor’s mother tried to seduce him, but held that the testimony was only self-serving.

 

Further, Soladoye said the defendant’s denial was but an afterthought which did not hold water.

 

The judge said the survivor was able to depict how the defendant assaulted her.

 

“‘The survivor said and I quote, “He helps my daddy when nobody is around; carries me to the toilet and asks me to pee, takes me back to the parlour, puts his finger in my bumbum, and also puts his penis in my  vagina,”‘ Soladoye said.

 

“Upon careful review of the evidence adduced before this court both oral and documentary, the survivor’s testimony was lucidly corroborated with other prosecution witnesses which were very compelling,” she continued.

 

The judge also noted that the witness against the defendant was clear and the evidence of all the prosecution witnesses were self explanatory.

 

“They spoke volumes,” she said.

 

“The investigative police officer, through whom the medical report was tendered, was very detailed, upright and diligent in her testimony,” Soladoye continued.

 

The judge held that a proof of injury or rupture of hymen was not necessary in the case of sexual assault, as penetration – no matter how slight – was sufficient to prove the offence.

 

Soladoye found Ogboniya guilty of the charge of penetrating the vagina of the young victim and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

 

She also ordered that Ogboniya’s name be registered in the sexual offenses register, as maintained by Lagos State.

 

The Judge urged parents and guardians to be watchful not to entrust their children in the hands of irresponsible adults like the defendant.

 

The prosecuting counsel, Abimbola Abolade presented four witnesses during trial while the convict testified as sole witness.

 

Abolade said that the convict committed the offense between 2019 and 2021, on Ogbewi Street, Cele Egbe in Ikotun, Lagos.

 

The prosecution told the court that the father of the survivor reported the case to the police, after the survivor summoned up courage to narrate her ordeal to him.

 

Ogboniya’s offense violated Section 261 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.