An Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court yesterday sentenced a cobbler, Alex Michael, and an Islamic cleric, Alfa Yakubu Isiaka, to life imprisonment for defiling an underaged girl .
Justice Raman Oshodi sentenced the convicts having found them guilty of a two count charge of defilement brought against them by the state.
The convicts were alleged to have had sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old girl and were arraigned before the court on May 27, 2020. They were first arraigned before Justice Sybil Nwaka before her elevation to the Appeal Court. They had pleaded not guilty to the two counts.
The defendants were re-arraigned before Justice Oshodi on August 3, 2021. They pleaded not guilty to charge read to them.
They were said to have had sexual intercourse with the underage girl three times between October and November 2019 at Fatai Olukoga Street, Igbo Olomu Estate, Ikorodu.
Michael was said to have had canal knowledge of the girl three times while Isiaka was said to have also had unlawful sexual intercourse with her two times. The prosecution team, Babajide Boye, O. Aluko and I. D. Solarin, commenced trial and called witnesses including the Investigation Police Office (IPO) and the survivor, to testify against the defendants.
The prosecution also tendered documents as exhibits to support the charge of rape against the defendants.
Michael had in his statement said the young girl normally came to their house and a woman called mummy Ada always sent her away. He stated that on the day of the incident, “she came to my house again when she entered she sat on the floor and she took my phone and started watching video on it.
“When I looked at her she laughed and I asked her the reason she was laughing and I found out she was watching blue film on it. I collected the phone from her. She went out and later came back and took the phone again.
“While I was lying down on my bed in our parlour, she said I want you to see what I’m watching. That was when she started kissing me and we had sexual intercourse together.”
He claimed that the survivor came the next day and that they had sex again.
Led by defence counsel, O. Fatoyebo, on October 11, 2022, Isiaka told the court that the girl was his neighbour but insisted that he did not have any relationship with her and did not know why he was in court.
He said that the allegation of defilement was trumped up charge against him because he slapped the survivor’s sister, a situation he said led to a scuffle between him and the survivor’s father.
He said that at the police station, he was beaten and threatened before he wrote Exhibit P2. (his confessional statement).
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Delivering judgement, Justice Oshodi held that the prosecution proved the case of defilement against the defendants and therefore sentenced both to life imprisonment.
The court also held that the statement he said he wrote denying the allegation was not tendered.
“But no such statement has been produced by the parties. None was contained in the proof of evidence. The only statement before the court is Exhibit P2. I have looked at Exhibit C. I see that Exhibit P2 was signed in five places by the first defendant at the top and bottom of the front page and the top and bottom of the second page.
“The confession in Exhibit P2 was corroborated by the IPO who testified that the first defendant admitted that he had sexual intercourse with the prosecutrix three times. I also believe that the first defendant had the opportunity to commit the crime.
“He was the survivor’s neighbour and knew her well. I believe that the confession in Exhibit P2 is possible and is consistent with other facts which have been ascertained as articulated in this judgment.
“Consequently, I believe that Exhibit P2 is a direct, positive, and unequivocal admission of guilt by the first defendant…”
After citing plethora of decided cases, he held that, “you had sexual intercourse with the victim who, to your knowledge, was a child. You both admitted this crime to police officers at the Owutu Police Division, Ikorodu.
The judge ordered that their name be registered as sex offenders in the Lagos State Sexual Offenders’ Register.
“You, Alex Michael, said that you had sexual intercourse with the victim three times because she was flirting around you. You also shared phonographic materials on your mobile phone with the victim.
“As for you, Yakub Isiaka (a.k.a. Alfa), the evidence shows that you had sexual intercourse with the victim twice. The first time, you gave her N500. The second time, you gave her N200.
“Our laws in Lagos State have zero tolerance for sexual crimes.
“The charge of defilement, for which you have both been convicted, carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment, which sends a signal that it is unacceptable.
“I consider the seriousness of the offence to justify a life sentence, and that is the sentence I must, therefore, impose upon you.”
He therefore sentenced each of the defendants to life imprisonment.
