- By Halimah Olamide
The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency has expressed satisfaction after an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court sentenced a 21-year old groundnuts seller, Sunday Uche, to life imprisonment.
Uche was sentenced for defiling a four year-old-girl.
Justice Ramon Oshodi concluded in his judgemen that the prosecution was able to prove the offence of defilement against the convict without reasonable doubt.
He stated that the defendant’s actions were heinous and deserving of the maximum punishment under the law.
Uche was remanded in custody on February 1, 2017, on a count of defilement by penetration preferred against him by the state, to which he pleaded not guilty.
According to the prosecution counsel, I.D. Solarin, the offence committed by Uche contravenes Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State.
The court was told Uche committed the crime on February 2, 2017, in his house.
Uche, who worked as a groundnut trader, defiled the minor in his home after she came to beg for groundnuts.
“I was at home when one small boy brought a four-year-old girl to my house to beg for groundnuts, so I decided to have sexual intercourse with her. After everything, I gave her some groundnuts. The small baby cried. I knew what I was doing was wrong but I was so eager…” he said.
During cross-examination, Uche presented a starkly different account of the event that happened on February 2, 2017. But once he was presented with judicial Exhibit E, a statement made by him on February 3, 2017, at the State Criminal Investigation Department, the overall case significantly shifted.
While delivering his judgment, the judge held that the evidence presented found the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, under Sections 135i and 139 of the Criminal Law of Lagos.
“Based on the evidence presented, a statement of the IPO of the Sabo Police Command, Lagos State, a statement from the victim’s mother, the police referral for medical examination, a detailed medical report from Mirabel Centre dated February 2, 2017, and the defendant’s statements, I find the defendant guilty and convict him under Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos.”