Man docked for allegedly raping daughter

The prosecutor, Ezekiel Ayorinde, told the court that the defendant committed the offence on August 9 at Ojo area of Lagos. Ayorinde said the defendant had sexual intercourse with his teenage daughter several times.

“The defendant usually have sexual intercourse with his daughter whenever his wife is not around. She told her mother what her father usually do to her in her absence and the case was reported to the police,” the prosecutor said. The offence contravenes Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

The magistrate, B.O. Osunsanmi, admitted the defendant to bail in the sum of N300,000 with two sureties in like sum. She adjourned the case until November 25 for mention.

Meanwhile, a mother (name withheld) has told an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court that her two-year-old daughter was defiled by one Afeez Balogun, a 27-year-old bus driver of her school in Lagos. The mother made the revelation while testifying as the first witness for the prosecution during Balogun’s trial for allegedly defiling the child in the school premises.

While being led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Mrs. Fehinti Ogbemudia, the mother said the defendant was a driver for Holbrook School, Gbagada Lagos, her daughter’s former school. She noted that the alleged defilement occurred in 2018 when the complainant was two-year-old.

“My daughter is currently three years and 11 months old. On July 5, 2018, my daughter woke up to ease herself at about 12:30a.m. and while she was easing herself, she was crying and saying ‘my bum-bum is paining me’. I tried to find out what the problem was and I took her to the bedroom and my husband and I asked her if anyone had hurt her bum-bum and she said yes.”

She told the court that she went to the school with her daughter that same morning and informed the school’s administrator about the development, after which the daughter identified Balogun by running to him.

She stated that after leaving the school, she went to the Office of the Public Defender (OPD) with her daughter where an officer was assigned to the case. She said her daughter was asked the second time at the OPD who had defiled her and she again identified the defendant.

The mother said they were referred further from OPD to the Mirabel Centre, a sexual assault facility located at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH). “At Mirabel Centre, some doctors examined her and identified bruises, which they said were signs of forced entry into her private part.”

The mother also told the court that at the Gender Unit of the Ikeja Command of the Nigeria Police Force, her daughter for the third time identified Balogun in a police lineup. She said the defendant was also taken to Pedro Police Station where another police lineup was conducted. “At Pedro Police Station, she again pointed at Mr. Afeez Balogun, making it four times that she identified him as the person who hurt her. That was when he was arrested,” the mother said.

According to the prosecution counsel, the defendant committed the alleged offence in July 2018 at Holbrook Crèche Nursery and Primary School, Pedro, Gbagada. “Balogun defiled the complainant, who was two-years-old at the time by having unlawful sexual intercourse with her,” Ogbemudia had said.

According to her, the offence contravenes Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 which recommends a life sentence for any individual found guilty of defiling a minor.Justice Abiola Soladoye adjourned the case till Nov. 20 for continuation of the cross-examination of the witness while the defendant remained in prison custody.