A trader, Abdullahi Sale, was given a life sentence by the Lagos State Special Offences Court in Ikeja for kidnapping and filthyling his 13-year-old neighbor, whose name was kept secret.
After convicting Sale of a two-count defilment and abduction charge brought against him by the state government, Justice Rahman Oshodi delivered the verdict.
The judge was informed that the offenses were against the laws of the state’s 2015, including sections 137 and 268.
Child defilement is punishable by life in prison under the terms of Section 137, which reflects the state’s legislative intent to punish such crimes with the utmost severity.
The convict, who lived in a “face-me-I-face-you” home at 18 Agunbiade Street in Kirikiri Town, Apapa, was accused of deceiving the JSS1 student into entering his room, defiling her, and locking her in his apartment for 11 days.
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The mother of the survivor testified that Sale allegedly inquired about the girl repeatedly while pretending to be concerned while locking her in a room in the same compound while her daughter went missing after they left church.
She claimed a naval officer eventually discovered the girl sitting alone in the street and transported her to the police station, where she later revealed that Sale had imprisoned her, provided her with instant noodles, and gave her containers for urination and defecation.
The survivor, who gave testimony in November 2022 at the age of 14, claimed she had never entered Sale’s room prior to the incident. She described how she entered and spent about a week locked herself inside a dim room.
A medical report from the Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF) Centre in Yaba was presented by a nurse and midwife Nwoke Okoi Oluchi, who also testified as the third Prosecution Witness.
Significant vaginal discharge, bruises, healed lacerations, and an intact hymen were revealed in the report. The girl had been sexually assaulted twice while confined in Sale’s room, and it came to the conclusion that these findings were in line with forced vaginal penetration.
The victim, who gave evidence on his own behalf, refuted the allegations, claiming that the girl approached him and demanded N15, 000 to have an abortion, initially claiming it was for a friend before allegedly claiming she was pregnant for a barber named Samuel.
Justice Oshodi characterized the convict’s testimony as “wholly unbelievable,” calling it implausible, internally contradictory, and inconsistent with established facts in his decision.
The prosecution subsequently established that the girl was a child under the Child Rights Law because she was proven to be 13 at the time.
He added that a child cannot legally consent to a defendant’s room being kept in for 11 days for sexual reasons.
According to the court, “The defendant engaged in sexual intercourse with the prosecutrix while she was being confined, together with the medical evidence of vaginal penetration, only allows one rational conclusion.”
Justice Oshodi added that Sale had betrayed his neighbor’s trust and had worsened the family’s suffering by pretending to help search for the girl while keeping her in his room, and having sexual relations with her. He added that the crimes had been “grievous.”
According to the legislature’s desire to treat such crimes with the utmost severity, section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State mandates life imprisonment for child defilement.
According to the judge, “Abdullahi Sale, I sentence you to life imprisonment for the offense of defilement against section 137 of the Criminal Law.” I sentence you to seven years in prison for count two, an offense committed in violation of section 268 of the same law.
The date of your remand in custody on September 17, 2021 shall be the beginning of the sentence. You must serve life in prison concurrently with the sentence that both sentences will serve.
