Justice Rahman Oshodi of a Lagos Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court, yesterday, sentenced 42-year-old Suleiman Usman to life imprisonment for defiling his daughter.

The judge sentenced him after he was found guilty as charged.

NaijaNews reports that the Lagos State government had arraigned Usman on a two-count charge bordering on defilement of his two daughters, who were eight and five years respectively, at his No.2 Bale Street, Onisewo in the Apapa area of Lagos State.

The defendant was 37 years when he committed that offence in 2018, while the survivors were eight and five years.

His offence contravened the provisions of section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015.

He had pleaded not guilty to the two counts charge.

Usman was first arraigned before Justice Sybil Nwaka, sometime in October 2019 before the judge was elevated to the Court of Appeal and the case file was reassigned to Justice Oshodi wherein he was re-arraigned on two counts of charge.

He also pleaded not guilty to the two counts and the prosecution commenced trial.

During the trial, the prosecution called four witnesses, among which, was the first survivor, the eight-year-old, the Investigative Police Officer (IPO), the defendant’s wife and mother of the survivors, and a medical doctor from Mirabel Centre.

In her testimony, the survivor identified the defendant as her father and narrated how she was repeatedly defiled by the father.

She further testified of informing her school teacher, who is close to her mother.

She told the court that she did not tell her mother because the defendant had warned and threatened that she would die if she did so.

In her testimony, the defendant’s wife narrated how she discovered that her two daughters were defiled when she took them to the hospital.

She described their house and noted they all sleep in a room, adding that their parlour is not attached to the room.

Under cross-examination, the survivor’s mother told the court that there was a night she met the defendant and her daughter in their parlour.

But the defendant told the court that his wife lied against him because he wanted to marry another wife and relocate her to the village.

However, Justice Oshodi in his judgment, yesterday, exonerated the defendant of the second charge.

The court held that the prosecution failed to prove the second charge against the defendant, as the second survivor did not testify to the second charge related to her defilement.

On count one, the court held that the testimony of the first survivor corroborated the medical doctor’s testimony.

The court said that he has considered the ingredients of the offences, the confessional statement, circumstantial evidence and the eyewitness account and therefore sentenced him to life imprisonment.

The judge also directed that his name be registered in the Sexual Offenders’ Register of Lagos State.

BREAKING: Raymond Dokpesi DAAR Communication Founder is Dead

The Chairman of DAAR Communications Ltd, High Chief Raymond Dokpesi, is dead.

He was aged 75. He was the founder of AIT/RAYPOWER, a leading media outfit in Nigeria. ROYAL NEWS reports that Dokpesi died on Monday in his Abuja residence.

Peter Obi Discusses Attending Tinubu’s Inauguration and Proposed Protest

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, has said he would not be attending the swearing-in ceremony of the President-elect, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

The former Governor of Lagos State would be sworn in as the 16th democratically elected President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria today at Eagle Square in Abuja.

Speaking to reporters in Abuja through his media aide, Tai Obasi, the LP flagbearer said it will be ‘extremely weird’ of him to attend Tinubu’s swearing-in when he is challenging his electoral victory in court.

Obasi noted that even though his principal is a very humble and reasonable man who is always looking for peace and unity in the country at all costs, he cannot act that weird and unreasonable.

The media aide, however, failed to confirm if the Labour Party leadership and Obi were sent individual invitations to the swearing-in ceremony.

He said, “My principal is a very humble and reasonable man who is always looking for peace and unity in the country at all costs. But it will be extremely weird for him to attend a ceremony of a man whose election victory he is challenging in court.

“My principal cannot act that weird and unreasonable. I can’t confirm if he receives an invitation to the swearing-in ceremony. But I am telling you that you can’t see him there.”

Speaking further, Obasi also denied rumuors that the former Anambra State governor is planning a demonstration ahead of today’s inauguration.

He said, “I don’t know where that report is coming from. We don’t know anything about it or who is behind the proposed protest. But I can categorically tell you that my principal is not aware of anything.

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“He is Obi and his followers are Obidient. I agree that on some occasions, they may act on their own, no matter how you tell them to keep calm. These guys are angry. They are not happy about how everything was manipulated against Obi who has given them so much hope. They followed him and waited for him all the way.”