Kemisola Oye
OLAWALE Olarewaju was a security guard in a construction company. Sometime in 2016, a 13-year-old girl came to his place of work to fetch water. Olawale reportedly grabbed her from behind, gagged her and took her to his room where he had carnal knowledge of the hapless girl.
When he was arraigned in court, Olawale pleaded not guilty but Justice Rahman Oshodi of a Lagos Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court sitting in Ikeja thinks otherwise. He found him guilty and sentenced him to life imprisonment accordingly.
The case marked LD/2359C/2016 was initially before Justice Sybil Nwaka (before she was elevated to the Court of Appeal) but the custodial centre did not produce the defendant before the court for arraignment despite the issuance of a production warrant between 2016 and 2019.
“Notwithstanding the issuance of production warrants on 18th September 2019, the defendant was not produced in court prompting Justice Nwaka (now Justice of the Court of Appeal) to strike out the case for want of diligent prosecution.
“The defendant was in Ikoyi Custodial Centre and remained there for about eight years from the day of his remand until he was produced before me on 3rd January 2023 for arraignment.
“The preceding demonstrates gaps in the operation of the Nigeria Correctional Service. It is mind-boggling to hear that the defendant had been in the Ikoyi Custodial Centre since 2016 but was brought to court for the first time in 2023.
“The correctional centre was directly responsible for the defendant’s long period of awaiting trial and this is appalling”, the court held.
However Justice Oshodi in his judgment held that the prosecution proved the ingredients of defilement against the defendant.
The judge said the survivor, now 18 years old testified before the court that she was 13 years when the incident happened. She testified that the defendant was a security guard at a construction site close to her house when the incident occurred.
The survivor further told the court that the defendant forcefully had sex with her when she went to fetch water at the site.
The judge held, “The prosecutrix testimony was that she went to fetch water at the construction site where the defendant worked when he came from her back, closed her mouth and found herself in the room with him.
“She said that the defendant ‘torn my clothes, forcefully had sex with me and I started having pains in my vagina. She further said that she informed her parent about the incident and the father reported the case at the nearest police station.”
The court further held that the survivor was taken to Mirabel Medical Centre for examination.
Delivering judgment, Justice Oshodi held that, “the evidence of the survivor was corroborated with that of her father who was the prosecution witness 2. The survivor gave a vivid and unshaken testimony of what the defendant did to her.”
The court also held that the defendant contradicted himself and made his evidence-in-chief unreliable.
“The defendant’s denial does not hold water as he admitted knowing the prosecutrix (survivor) but made a u-turn during cross-examination that he did not know her. He also admitted that the prosecutrix came to the compound to fetch water.”
The court, therefore, found him guilty as charged, Justice Oshodi subsequently convicted and sentenced him to life imprisonment.
The court also ordered that the convict’s name be entered in the Sexual Offences Register maintained by the Lagos State government.
Eighteen-Eleven Media