A 30-year-old bricklayer, Idowu Ismaila Gbolahan, was on Monday sentenced to life in prison for defiling his 7-year-old niece.
Gbolahan who pleaded guilty to the charge of defilement, committed the offence at their residence at No 50, Morocco Road, Shomolu, on August 11, 2018.
According to the prosecutor, Feyinti Ogbemudia, the convict who is an uncle to the victim, sexually defiled the under-aged girl when she went to drink water in her grandmother’s room.
He told the court, “The victim who resides with her grandmother had gone into the room to drink water but was dragged into another room by her uncle.
“He shut the door, pulled off the victim’s pant and had forceful sexual intercourse with her.
The presiding judge, Justice Abiola Soladoye, who found Gbolahan guilty of defiling a minor said: “I have reviewed the facts of the case and I hereby find the defendant guilty of the one count charge of defilement.
“The defendant violated the chastity of a child, thereby leaving an indelible emotional trauma. I can imagine the trauma the child went through. According to Section 131of the Lagos State Criminal Laws, the defendant is hereby sentenced to life imprisonment,” the judge ruled.
Earlier in his plea for mercy known as allocutus, the defendant’s counsel, Kelechi Obi, asked the court to temper justice with mercy as the defendant was a first-time offender.
