The Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja has sentenced a former teacher, Nwatu Isaac, to life imprisonment for defiling an eight-year-old pupil at El-Bossaa Nursery and Primary School, Epe, while another judge of the court sentenced Adakole Ogbodo to death for murdering a man identified simply as Bolaji following a dispute over sachet water.

In the first case, Justice Rahman Oshodi, in a judgment delivered on Tuesday, found Isaac guilty of defiling the pupil on March 10, 2022, holding that the prosecution had proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.

The judge also ordered that Isaac’s name be entered in the Sex Offenders Register in accordance with Sections 33 and 38 of the Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency Law, 2021.

Isaac was prosecuted under Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015, which prescribes life imprisonment for unlawful sexual intercourse with a child.

Justice Oshodi held that the prosecution had established the two essential elements of the offence: that the victim was a child and that Isaac had sexual intercourse with her.

The court rejected Isaac’s denial that he went beyond the school gate on the day of the incident, noting that his own evidence placed him at the scene, while the victim identified him as the person who took her into the toilet.

The judge also dismissed the defence of alibi, holding that Isaac never claimed to have been elsewhere at the material time.

“On the convict’s own admission, he was not at a considerable distance from the scene. He was at its gate,” the judge said, adding that the victim’s testimony placed him within the school premises.

Justice Oshodi described the victim’s testimony as credible and consistent. The girl, who was nine when she testified, gave a clear account of how Isaac, whom she knew as “Master Isaac,” lured her into the toilet and sexually assaulted her.

The court found further corroboration in the testimony of the girl’s mother, who told the court that she noticed blood on her daughter’s underwear and private parts after she returned from school.

Medical evidence from the Mirabel Centre also supported the prosecution’s case, with a doctor reporting physical signs consistent with penetration.

The judge dismissed the defence argument that the absence of DNA or sperm evidence weakened the case, holding that the medical findings sufficiently corroborated the evidence of penetration.

In the second case, Justice Modupe Nicol-Clay convicted and sentenced Ogbodo to death for the murder of Bolaji following a violent altercation over sachet water.

The Lagos State Government, through its prosecution team led by former Director of Public Prosecutions, Dr Babajide Martins, and Mrs Titilayo Olanrewaju-Daud, had arraigned Ogbodo for allegedly killing the deceased with an iron object and a knife at 66B Mosley Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, on January 31, 2022.

The charge, dated June 20, 2022, stated that the offence contravened Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015, which prescribes death as punishment for murder.

During the trial, the prosecution called three witnesses, including a carpenter, Chigozie Paul, and two police officers, Inspector Damian Ogunye and Inspector Adeniyi Shola.

Paul told the court that he saw Ogbodo beating the deceased with a scaffolding pipe during a fight that erupted after both men had been eating together and disagreed over sachet water.

He testified that the deceased fell after being struck and that Ogbodo pursued him across the road, continuing the assault.

Paul said he later saw the deceased’s lifeless body on Mosley Road the following morning, with Ogbodo sitting a short distance away.

He further told the court that when police officers arrived and asked Ogbodo if he knew the deceased, he answered in the affirmative. When asked who killed him, he reportedly responded, “Him,” referring to himself.

Under cross-examination, however, Paul admitted that he did not witness the actual moment of death.

Inspector Ogunye testified that the police responded to a murder report, visited the scene, documented the body and evacuated it to the Infectious Disease Hospital, Yaba. He added that Ogbodo was arrested at the scene and that a knife was recovered from him.

Inspector Shola told the court that the case was later transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, for further investigation, noting that some people present at the scene declined to make statements.

The defence argued that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, citing alleged contradictions in the witnesses’ testimonies, the absence of an eyewitness to the killing and the lack of an autopsy report establishing the cause of death.

Justice Nicol-Clay, however, rejected the arguments, holding that the absence of direct eyewitness evidence was not fatal where circumstantial evidence was cogent and compelling.

“It is permissible to rely on surrounding circumstances to identify the perpetrator of a crime in the absence of eyewitnesses,” the judge held, adding that the evidence before the court was “overwhelming.”

The court found that Ogbodo was seen assaulting the deceased and was later found near his body, forming a chain of evidence that the judge held pointed irresistibly to his guilt.

The judge also dismissed the argument that the absence of medical evidence weakened the prosecution’s case, holding that there was sufficient evidence linking Ogbodo’s unlawful act to the death.

On intent, the court held that striking the deceased on the head with a scaffolding pipe demonstrated knowledge that such an act could result in death or grievous harm.

The court consequently found Ogbodo guilty of murder.

In sentencing, Justice Nicol-Clay noted that the offence carried a mandatory death penalty under Section 223 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015, leaving the court with no discretion.

Although the defence pleaded for leniency, arguing that Ogbodo had been in custody since 2022 and lacked family support, the judge held that the law must take its course.

Ogbodo was accordingly sentenced to death.