Judge Acquits Man Accused Of Child Defilement 

By Felix Kuyinu

A man identified as Jeremiah Aniede has been acquitted from prosecution having been accused of defiling a teenager.

Aniede, a road side trader, was freed during a proceeding at the The Ikeja Sexual Offence and Domestic Violence Court, on Friday.

Justice Abiola Soladoye, who gave the rulling, found the accused not guilty of the charge of defilement on the 17-year-old girl as submitted by the prosecution counsel, Olushola Soneye.

Soneye accused the defendant of commiting the offence in May 2021, hinting that the act contravened Section 37 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

Aniede pleaded not guilty.

During the trial, the supposed victim, who testified solely for herself, said she was 17 years old and attended vocational class during the time of the incident.

“I stole my father’s money and boarded a bus from Ijebu–Ode to Lagos,”she narrated.

“When I got to Ketu bus stop, I bought a hijab and later a thrift cloth, and then told him (Aniede) to help me get a place to sleep due to the unknown surroundings I found myself.

“He offered to help me and asked me to come later so that he could take me to where I would sleep.

“Later that night, he took me to a hotel, but I refused to follow him. He later took me to a place and asked me to wait outside and then came with two Super Bite gala and Fanta which he gave me to eat and drink.

“He took me to an uncompleted building and raped me. It was some people that helped me to the Ketu police station.”

During cross-examination, the teenager denied that she did not make any statement at Police Station.

However, Justice Abiola, while disclosing that the evidence by the supposed victim could not be corroborated, held that the prosecution could not discharge the burden of proof against the defendant as there were contradictions in her testimony.

The judge said that the teenager lied that she never made a statement at the police station.

She held, “It is desirable for a testimony to be corroborated. There were missing vital material contradictions and the contradiction has been resolved in favour of the defendant.

“A case of defilement must be corroborated. Where there is a contradiction, the court must reject the entire evidence.

“Her evidence was full of lies and was not reliable. Her accounts are so contradictory,” the judge positioned.

“The totality of the evidence in this court did not prove the case against the defendant; he is hereby not found guilty of the offence of defilement, he is hereby discharged and acquitted,” the judge held.

The judge advised the teenager to refrain from social vices, going and frolicking on the street, saying stealing her father’s money and running away from home was unnecessary.