An Ikeja Special Offences and Domestic Violence Court has discharged and acquitted one Alfred Udiong of an alleged defilement charge of a 14-year-old girl (name withheld).
Justice Rahman Oshodi held that the prosecution failed to prove the charge of defilement against the defendant by calling the survivor to give her testimony in the matter.
“In this case, two elements were established, the survivor’s age through the defendant’s admission and sexual activity through the medical evidence.
“However without the survivor’s testimony, the prosecution could not definitively establish the defendant as the perpetrator of the sexual acts evidence by the medical findings.
“Consequently, the prosecution has not discharged its burden of proving the defendant’s guilt beyond reasonable doubts.
“The defendant is therefore found not guilty of defilement. He is hereby discharged and acquitted,” Justice Oshodi held.
The defendant was charged for the offence of defilement of his own daughter aged 14 years.
He pleaded not guilty on April 26, 2022 when he was arraigned before the court.
During the trial, the prosecution called three witnesses including the medical doctor, a social worker and the IPO.
The medical doctor (PW1) in his testimony had told the court that the medical examination of the survivor on August 2021 revealed that her hymen was absent though there were no recent focal injuries to her genitalia.
The defense counsel, C.O. Achonye, called one witness, the defendant, who testified for himself.
He maintained that he never had sexual intercourse with the survivor and went further to tell the court that he works long hours as a driver at Citibank, leaving the home at 5 am and returning between10 pm and midnight.
The defendant also told the court that the allegations might be fabricated by the acrimonious relationship with his estranged wife and after disciplining his daughter over the alleged improper relationship with boys in the neighborhood as confirmed by one Mr Chucks, their neighbour.
