A 13-year-old student (name withheld), has narrated before an Ikeja Special Offences and Domestic Violence Court how a 60-year-old customer of her grandmother defiled her two-years ago when she was aged 11.
The teenager made the disclosure on Tuesday during the trial of one Ahmadu Ali, also known as ‘Baba 90’, now 62-years-old over alleged defilement.
While being led in evidence by the lead state prosecutor, Mr Babajide Boye, the student told the court that she was accosted, taken to an uncompleted building and defiled by Ali in February 2017.
“My grandmother sent me on an errand to give my sister a sanitary towel. While returning home, Baba 90 carried me into an uncompleted building. I know him, he used to buy things from our shop.
“He removed my skirt and my pant and he removed his own knickers too and he put his penis into my bum-bum (vagina) and he told me that if I told anybody, he will kill me.
“He closed my mouth with his hand; this is the second time he was doing it, the first time was in our house and that time he also said he was going to kill me,” she said.
The student told the court that a member of the public who saw Baba 90 carry her into the uncompleted building made a report at a nearby office of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).
“NDLEA officers came to the uncompleted building and took us to the police station.
“I was asked questions at the police station and they also asked him (the defendant) questions too. My grandmother and my mummy were also at the police station,” she said.
While being cross-examined by Mrs R. E. Ogbepkolan, Ali’s defence counsel, the student said that the defendant had given her N70 after defiling her.
“The uncompleted building is along the road, people cannot see what is going on inside, I was taken there when I was returning from my sister’s shop.
“The defendant carried me on his shoulder, he said if i shout, he was going to kill me.
“The defendant buys things from my grandmother’s shop, he sometimes buys on credit. Baba 90 was owing my grandmother N240 for the things he bought.
“On the day the defilement happened, I did not ask for money. When he finished, he put N70 beside me and warned me that I should not tell anybody,” she said.
NAN reports that according to the prosecution, the defendant committed the offence at 2:00p.m. on Feb. 3, 2017 behind the NDLEA office, Kasoleri, Itokin Road, Ikorodu, Lagos.
“He had unlawful carnal knowledge of the student who was 11-years-old at the time thereby committing an offence contrary to Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos 2015,” Boye said.
Section 137 prescribes a life sentence for anyone found guilty of defiling a child.
The trial judge,Justice Sybil Nwaka adjourned the case until May 14, for continuation of trial.
