Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja, on Monday, sentenced a 41-year-old teacher of the Mind Builders Nursery and Primary School, Omole Phase 11, Ikeja, Chukwu Ndubuisi, to life imprisonment for raping a six-year-old girl on the school premises.
Justice Sedoten Ogunsanya, who sentenced Ndubuisi, held that the prosecution was able to prove the charge of defilement against the defendant.
The convict committed the offence in June 2016.
Ndubuisi, who was a part-time art teacher at the school, was arraigned on October 4, 2016, at an Ogudu Magistrate’s Court, Lagos, on a charge of forceful penetration to which he pleaded not guilty.
Justice Olufunke Sule-Amzat, who was a Magistrate when Ndubusi was arraigned, granted him bail in the sum of N100,000 with two verifiable sureties that must be blood relations with evidence of gainful employment.
The case was later assigned to Justice Ogunsanya after the legal advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecution came out.
During the trial, the prosecution called 13 witnesses while the defendant called nine witnesses.
Delivering the judgment, Justice Ogunsanya, cited several authorities, and held that the prosecution proved its case against the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt.
The judge held, “The fact, circumstances, and quality of evidence against the defendant was compelling. The first time the victim told her mother of her experience was when she (the mother) was discussing the case of a seven-year-old girl that was defiled and killed which went viral.
“The account of the victim and that of her mother was uncontroverted, corroborated each other, and they gave a good account of the sexual assault.”
Ogunsanya noted that the defendant usually sent the victim’s friend to call her and that the first time the defendant defiled her was in the female toilet.
The judge said that the second time the defendant defiled the victim was in the art room of the school.
She said, “The victim told the court that sometimes, her teacher (defendant) asked her to remove her uniform and put his ‘bumbum’ into her ‘bum bum’.
“At another time, he called her into the art room, he put her on the table, parted her panties, and put his thing into my thing. She said the victim told the court that when the defendant is finished, he would clean up the victim with water.”
The court said the defendant had unhindered access to the child and defiled her several times.
Justice Ogunsanya expunged the evidence of two prosecution witnesses who were medical doctors for being contradictory, pointing out that they did not come as expert witnesses.
She also dismissed the submission by the defence witnesses that the incident was not recorded on the school’s CCTV.
Ogunsanya upheld the result of the test conducted at the Mirabel Centre which showed that the victim had torn hymen and reddish vulva and that there was evidence of forceful penetration.
The judge, therefore, convicted the defendant as charged.
Counsel to the defendant, Olagunju pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy saying that no case of improper behaviour had ever been brought against the defendant nor had he ever had any case at any police station until this case.
But the state prosecutor, Kareem Jubril, argued that the law under which the defendant was charged did not give the court any discretion.
He urged the court to impose the mandatory sentence stipulated in the law.
Justice Ogunsanya subsequently sentenced the defendant to life imprisonment.
She said, “The defendant (Ndubuisi) is hereby sentenced to life imprisonment for the defilement of a child.”
Quadri Olaitan is a journalist and contributor to Freelanews.com, covering news, public affairs, and human-interest stories.
