An Ikeja Magistrates’ Court in Lagos on Friday remanded a 33-year-old unemployed man, Riliwan Salim, in a correctional facility for allegedly defiling a five-year-old girl.
The Magistrate, Mrs E. Kubeinje, who did not take the defendant’s plea, directed the police to send the case file to the state Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for advice.
She ordered that the defendant be kept in the Kirikiri Correctional Centre, pending the DPP’s advice.
The defendant, who resides at Ikotun area of Lagos, is being tried for defilement.
The Prosecutor, ASP Bisi Ogunleye, told the court that the defendant committed the offence on June 20 at his residence.
He said that the defendant lured the girl into his apartment, removed her pant and forcefully had canal knowledge of the minor.
He said that a neighbour who saw the man having canal knowledge of the girl, alerted her mother.
Ogunleye said the girl’s mother reported the case to the police, leading to the arrest of the defendant.
The prosecutor said that medical reports revealed that the minor had been defiled.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that defilement violates Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015, and is punishable with life imprisonment.
The case was adjourned until Aug. 26.
