42-Yr-Old Father Bags Life Imprisonment For Defiling 8-Yr-Old Daughter
Kemisola Oye
JUSTICE Rahman Oshodi of a Lagos State Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court, earlier today sentenced a 42-year-old father Suleimon Usman to life imprisonment for the defilement of his 8 years old daughter.
The judge sentenced him to life imprisonment after he was found guilty as charged by the Lagos State Government.
The state government had arraigned Usman on two counts charge bordering on defilement of his two daughters of eight years and five years at his No. .2 Bale Street, Onisewo in the Apapa area of Lagos State.
The defendant was 37 years old when he committed that offence in 2018 and the survivor was eight years.
His offence contravenes the provisions of Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.
He had pleaded not guilty to the two counts charge.
Usman was first arraigned before Justice Sybil Nwaka sometime in October 2019 before the judge was elevated to the Court of Appeal and the case file was reassigned to Justice Oshodi’s court wherein he was re-arraigned on two counts charge.
He also pleaded not guilty to the two counts and the prosecution commenced trial.
During the trial, the prosecution called four witnesses among which was the first survivor, the eight years old girl, the Investigative Police Officer (IPO), the defendant’s wife (the mother of the survivors) and the medical doctor from Mirabel Centre.
After the close of the prosecution case, the defendant opened his defence and called three witnesses including the defendant.
The survivor in her testimony identified the defendant as her father. The first survivor narrated to the court how her father defiled her repeatedly. She said, “What happened is that my daddy used to carry me every night to our parlour (living room), he used to put his penis in my bombom.”
She had further testified that she informed her school teacher who is close to her mother. She told the court that she did not tell her mother because the defendant had warned and threatened her that she would die if she told her.
She told her teacher that she felt pain in her bombom. She said she didn’t tell her mother because her father told her he would kill her, a statement she repeatedly told the court during cross-examination.
The defendant’s wife (survivor’s mother), in her testimony, narrated to the court how she discovered that her two daughters were defiled when she took the two girls to the hospital.
She described their house, noting they all sleep in a room. She added that their parlour was not attached to the room.
She said she went to the school teacher to help her get information as to why her daughter was not walking properly.
The teacher later told her she doesn’t want to scatter her home. She further told the court that she took them (the two girls) to the laboratory. During the examination, the nurse told her they have been deflowered. The girls said they were sexually abused by their father. She was later directed to the Ben Bruce Organisation before the Mirabel Centre.
The survivor’s mother told the court how she sexually satisfied the defendant. She expressed her bitterness that the man she married defiled his own children.
Under cross-examination, the survivor’s mother told the court that there was a night she met the defendant and the girl in their parlour. She recounted that when she asked him, he told her that he helped the survivor to answer the call of nature (carried the girl to urinate). She told the court she would never lie against her husband.
But the defendant had told the court that his wife lied against him because he wanted to relocate the wife to the village. He said his wife concocted the lie because he wanted to marry another wife and was afraid of taking the girls from her.
However, Justice Oshodi while delivering judgment today exonerated the defendant of the second charge.
The court held that the prosecution failed to prove the second charge against the defendant as the second survivor did not testify to the second charge relating to her defilement.
On count one, the court held that the testimony of the first survivor corroborates that of the medical doctor. The court held that the survivor’s evidence that she felt pain in her bombom. She said her father used to put his finger in her private part and that her daddy used to put his penis in her anus.
The court said that he has considered the ingredients of the offences, the confessional statement, circumstantial evidence and the eyewitness account.
“I do not believe that the first survivor was tutored. I reiterated that her evidence is credible. Regardless, I have already received an eyewitness account, maintaining, “What happened, my daddy every night he use to carry me from our room and put me in parlour and put his penis in my bombom.”
“The prosecution provided evidence of a medical doctor who examined the survivor. The redness in the virginal lips, the anus was loose and getting healed and there was penetration in the survivor’s anus.
“I am convinced that the medical doctor’s evidence corroborates that of the survivor. The mother said the crime scene is their family parlour. I do not consider the defendant’s testimony as credible. I found the defendant guilty of count one.”
Justice Oshodi, therefore, sentenced him to life imprisonment.
According to him, “Our society is prone to sexual abuse, sexual crime against children are so prevalent. Our laws in Lagos have zero tolerance for your gang of paedophiles that is not acceptable. In your case, the survivor is your daughter. You put your penis in her virginal and her anus, the survivor was 8 years at the time because she had excruciating pain.
“The medical doctor said she has an injury. What sexual pleasure do you want to derive from your child? I hereby sentence you to life imprisonment, your name shall be registered in the Sexual Offenders’ Register of Lagos State.”
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