In a significant ruling yesterday, Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Lagos Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court handed down a life imprisonment sentence to 42-year-old Suleimon Usman after finding him guilty of defiling his own daughter.
Usman was charged by the Lagos State government on two counts of defilement involving his two daughters, aged eight and five, at his residence on Bale Street in the Apapa area of Lagos State.
The defendant, who committed the heinous act in 2018 at the age of 37, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The case was initially brought before Justice Sybil Nwaka in October 2019, but was later reassigned to Justice Oshodi after Justice Nwaka was elevated to the Court of Appeal.
During the trial, the prosecution presented four witnesses, including the first survivor, the eight-year-old daughter, the Investigative Police Officer, the defendant’s wife and mother of the survivors, and a medical doctor from the Mirabel Centre.
The survivor bravely identified her father as the perpetrator and provided detailed accounts of the repeated sexual abuse she endured.
She testified that she had confided in a school teacher close to her mother but had refrained from telling her mother due to threats from the defendant.
The defendant’s wife testified about her discovery of her daughters’ abuse when she took them to the hospital.
She described the living arrangements in their house, emphasizing that they all slept in one room separate from the parlour.
Despite the defendant’s claims that his wife fabricated the allegations to prevent his marriage to another woman, Justice Oshodi, in his judgment, exonerated the defendant of the second charge.
The court concluded that the prosecution failed to prove the second charge beyond a reasonable doubt as the second survivor did not testify regarding her own abuse.
However, on the first count, the court found the testimony of the first survivor to be corroborated by the medical doctor’s evidence.
Considering the evidence presented, including the defendant’s confessional statement and circumstantial evidence, Justice Oshodi sentenced Usman to life imprisonment.
Furthermore, the judge ordered that Usman’s name be registered in the Sexual Offenders’ Register of Lagos State, ensuring that his conviction and details are recorded for future reference and monitoring.
