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

Presiding judge Justice Abiola Soladoye, in a judgement delivered on Tuesday, July 9, 2024, held that the prosecution proved the charge of defilement against Asekeji.

Justice Soladoye said the convict’s act of having unlawful sexual intercourse with his biological child was against the law of nature.

She said it was a case of incest which should never be heard of.

The judge stated that the father of the convict, who is 75 years old, testified against him that he defiled his granddaughter by having unlawful sexual intercourse with her.

Justice Soladoye said: “The victim, 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 had sex with her.

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“She said and I quote ‘he laid on me and put his penis in my vagina, then he took videos of me and threatened to show the video to people if I tell anybody what has happened’.”

Justice Soladoye noted that the survivor testified that her father instructed her to drink salt water after he had defiled her.

The judge disclosed that the girl told the court that she could not tell anyone earlier because her father threatened to kill her if she told anyone that he had been sexually abusing her before the last incident on June 11, 2020.

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

The convict’s mother, a petty trader, in her evidence, also told the court that she returned from the market and saw blood on the pants of her granddaughter and then asked her what happened to her.

She said her granddaughter told her that she was having stomach pain and her father gave her something to drink and then told her the incident that occurred.

The survivor’s grandmother disclosed that a report was made at the Meiran Police Station, leading to the arrest of the businessman.

Justice Soladoye added: “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, the evidence of the grandfather, and evidence of her uncle all points to the convict.

“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 businessman was arraigned before the court on a charge of defilement.

The Lagos State counsel, Abimbola Abolade, told the court that the convict committed the offence at about 11 p.m. at Ilupeju Street in the Meiran area of Lagos on June 11, 2020.

The prosecution called five witnesses while the convicted businessman testified as a sole witness.

The Star