Justice Abiola Soladoye of the Lagos State Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court in Ikeja has convicted and sentenced an apprentice, Godwin Ogboniya, to life imprisonment for sexually assaulting his employer’s nine-year-old daughter.
Delivering judgment in the case on Monday, October 16, Justice Soladoye handed down the verdict after she found Ogboniya guilty of the one-count charge of sexual assault by penetration brought against him by the state government.
The prosecution, Ms Abimbola Abolade, had told the court during thee trial that the convict committed the offence between 2019 and 2021 at Ogbewi Street, Cele Egbe in Ikotun, Lagos. Abolade also informed the court that the father of the victim reported the case to the police, after the survivor summoned courage to narrate her ordeal to him. During the trial, four witnesses were invited to testify while the convict testified as sole witness.
In her judgment, Justice Soladoye held that the prosecution successfully proved beyond reasonable doubts the elements of the crime against Ogboniya. The judge also held that the defendant, who had been living with the survivor’s father for three years, was an “unkind and unworthy employee who embarked on sexual frolicking with the nine-year old girl.”
The judge said the defendant’s testimony that the survivor’s mother tried to seduce him, was self-serving and his denial was an afterthought which did not hold waters.
“The nine-year-old girl recognised the defendant in the dock as the man who sexually assaulted her on several occasions when her parents were not at home. The survivor said and I quote ‘he helps my daddy when nobody is around, carries me to the toilet and asks me to pee, takes me back to the parlour, puts his finger in my bumbum and also puts his penis in my vagina’.
Upon careful review of the evidence adduced before this court both oral and documentary, the survivor’s testimony was lucidly corroborated with other prosecution witnesses which were very compelling.
The investigative police officer, through whom the medical report was tendered, was very detailed, upright and diligent in her testimony.
This defendant, haven found guilty as charged, penetrating the vagina of the young victim, is hereby sentenced to life imprisonment.’’ the judge ruled