An Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Tuesday sentenced a 45-year-old businessman, Emeka Orisakwe, to three life sentences for defiling his three underaged children. The minors were aged eight, eight and six.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Justice Abiola Soladoye held that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt the three-count charge bordering on sexual assault by penetration against the defendant.
“You are wicked and a pathological liar,” she said, adding that the defendant said his wife was mentally unstable in order to deny the offence.
”This is most bizarre and unfortunate,” she added
She also berated the immediate younger sister of the defendant, who testified at the first defence witness, (DW1) for tendering a medical report concerning the mental state of the defendant’s wife which did not correlate with the timing of the incident.
The judge also said that DW1 evidence was unreliable as it was a pack of lies tainted by deception after she had corrupted the minds of the survivors to lie before the court.
“The children were very honest but I observed the three children that came to testify and this court could see that their aunt, whom they stayed with after the incident, had been working on their brains to tell lies before this court.
“The children’s subsequent denial in court after they made statements at Satellite Police Station that their father messed around their vaginas with his fingers is an afterthought and very unfortunate.
“The children were taken away from the custody of their mother and the sister-in-law painted lies in their minds.
“This court can not be fooled. The DW1 is a liar and a wicked sister-in-law, whose evidence is self serving to save her brother from drawing.
“The medical report on the mental state of the defendant’s wife which she tendered before this court was dated Feb. 2, 2023 but the sexual incident occurred years back and in desperation, they went to cook up a medical report from Imo state that the defendant’s wife is mentally unstable.
The judge of the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court further said that the attempts of DW1 and the defendant were to get through the back door when they could not get through the front door as the medical reports on the survivors revealed blunt forceful penetration.
“The medical reports which were carried out on the three children and admitted into evidence before this court showed bruises on the inner surface, blunt and forceful penetration of the survivor’s vaginas.
“The medical examination revealed that the three children suffered various degrees of bruises from the sexual assault perpetrated by their biological father.
“This corroborates the statement of the survivors at the police station and the evidence given by the second prosecution witness (PW2), an officer from a child advocacy agency that the brother of the survivors, told him that he once saw his father, fingering his sister,” the judge said
She further said that the subsequent denial of the defendant was an afterthought which did not hold water.
Soladoye thereby convicted the defendant of the 3-count charge and subsequently sentenced him to life imprisonment on each of the counts.
She, however, held that the sentencing should run concurrently.
The judge also ordered that the convict should have his name registered in the sexual offences register as maintained by Lagos State.
NAN reports that the state Deputy Director of Department of Public Prosecution (DPP) , Mr Olusola Soneye called seven prosecution witnesses thought several documents were tendered while the defendant and his sister testified for the defence.
Soneye told the court that Orisakwe committed the offences between January and July 2021 at No.32 Ganiyat St., Monkey Village, Maza Maza, Lagos.
The prosecution submitted that the mother of the children found blood stains on the private part of one of them and she told her mother that her father had touched her “bombom”
“Upon further questioning, the mother called the other two children and they also confessed to her that their father had been assaulting them sexually whenever she was not at home,” he said.
According to the prosecutor, the offence contravenes the provisions of Section 261 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
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