The Lagos Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court sitting in Ikeja has sentenced a 34-year-old businessman, Oluwafemi Asekeji, to life imprisonment for sexually assaulting his 12-year-old daughter.

This was disclosed in a statement by the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency, obtained by our correspondent on Wednesday.

According to the statement, the presiding judge, Justice Abiola Soladoye, noted that the prosecution had proved the three legs of the charge of rape against Asekeji.

The statement noted that close acquaintances of the victim and the convict who were privy to the incident testified as witnesses against the convict which spurred the decision of the judge to sentence Asekeji to life imprisonment.

Among the key witnesses presented by the prosecutor included the convict’s father, mother and brother whom he had left the victim with.

The statement quoted the judge as saying, “The survivor, in her testimony, told the court that she was 14 years old but her father defiled her when she was 12 years old. She testified that she was at home with her father, who was drunk on June 11, 2020, and he instructed her to enter the room and lie on the bed.

“She told this court that her father asked her to take off her clothes and then he defiled her. She said her father took videos of her and threatened to show the video to people if she told anybody what had happened.”

It added that the court held that the survivor testified that her father instructed her to drink salt water after he had defiled her. The judge said the survivor told the court that she could not tell anyone earlier because the convict had threatened to kill her if she told anyone that he had been sexually abusing her before the last incident of June 11, 2020.

The judge also stated that the medical report revealed that the survivor had been defiled as the report showed the hymen had been broken.

Soladoye said that the convict’s act of having unlawful sexual intercourse with his biological child was against the law of nature, calling it a case of incest which should never be heard of.

The convict’s mother, a petty trader, was said to have testified before the court that she returned from the market and observed something strange about her granddaughter which led her to enquire about what had happened.

Upon interrogation, the grandmother noted that the victim confided in her about the incident.

The survivor’s grandmother said that a report was made at the Meiran Police Station and the convict was arrested.

The convict however pleaded not guilty stressing that he did not live with his parents but that he had access to the house, where his daughter lived with his parents.

Reacting, the court noted that the victim had identified her biological father as the man who had sexual intercourse with her several times.

Soladoye said, “Apart from identifying Asekeji as her father, other witnesses confirmed the evidence of the victim. Circumstantial evidence and also medical report, evidence of the grandmother, evidence of the grandfather and evidence of her uncle all point to the convict.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Soladoye sentenced the convict to life imprisonment. She also ordered that the convict’s name be included in the Lagos State Sexual Offenders Register.

“Oluwafemi Asekeji, you have been found guilty as charged and you are hereby sentenced to life imprisonment. The convict is to have his name registered in the Lagos State Sexual Offences register,” the statement concluded.

PUNCH

About The Author