Justice Rahman Oshodi of a Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court has sentenced a 41-year-old vulcanizer, Wasiu Ibrahim, to life imprisonment for defiling his wife’s 15-year-old niece.

Justice Oshodi found him guilty of defiling an underage girl as charged by the Lagos State government. He was said to have committed the offence on January 26, 2017, about 2.00 a.m. at 61 Abeokuta Street in Ogba area of the state.

The offence contravenes the provision of Section 137 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015. Delivering judgment in the matter yesterday, the court held that the prosecution sufficiently proved the charge against the defendant.

Justice Oshodi held that the convict was a pathological liar who tried to deny the extra-judicial statement he made wherein he confessed to have defiled the survivor (name withheld).

The judge said that he was satisfied that the prosecution had proved the ingredients of the charge of defilement against the defendant.

“Mr. Wasiu Ibrahim, for sexual gratification, you violated the survivor after your wife had just returned home from a burial,” he said. The court also held that the survivor had lived with him since when she was 10 years old and called him daddy, yet that did not deter him.

“You threatened to beat her if she told anyone after having sexual intercourse with her. She did not inform anyone until days later after she was found crying at the back of the classroom at Estate Primary School, Ogba,” he added.

The judge said a man like the defendant should be ashamed and punished as the laws of Lagos State have zero tolerance to sexual crimes. “The charge of defilement for which you have been found guilty carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment,” he added.

The court therefore sentenced him to life imprisonment and ordered that his name be registered in the Sexual Offences Register as maintained by Lagos State.

The prosecution counsel, the Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Dr. Babajide Martins, appreciated the court for a judgment well delivered. He had during the trial called three witnesses.