One Emmanuel Idoko has been sentenced by Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic
Violence Court on Tuesday to 20 years imprisonment for sexually assaulting his
12-year-old daughter.
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr Idoko a 37-year-old
commercial motorcyclist was convicted of inserting his finger into his daughter’s
private part.
Delivering judgment on the charge of sexual assault by penetration against
Mr Idoko, Justice Sybil Nwaka said the prosecution provided ingredients
necessary to prove its case.
The judge said: “The defendant is found guilty of the charge of sexual
assault by penetration contrary to Section 261 of the Criminal Law of Lagos
State 2015.
“He is hereby sentenced to 20 years imprisonment.”
The prosecution, led by Babajide Boye, had told the court that Mr Idoko
committed the offence between July and November 2017 at his residence in
Oworoshoki, Lagos.
“He sexually assaulted his 12-year-old daughter (name withheld) by
penetrating her honeypot using his finger,” Mr Boye said.
During the trial, four witnesses testified for the prosecution while Idoko
testified solely in his defence.
Testifying for the prosecution on March 5, 2019, Oyedeji Alagbe, a medical
doctor and a consultant with the Mirabel Centre (a sexual assault referral centre),
narrating what the complainant revealed to him when he examined her said: “The
client declared in her history that her father, though not married to her
mother, had her and her male sibling living with him.
“The victim’s ordeal started in 2016, a year before she was referred to the
Mirabel Centre.
“The victim said her father came home and said that he heard from people
that she was no longer a virgin and he needed to test her to see if it was
true.
“He forced her to undress and said he will use his finger to test her, the
client was reluctant. He scolded her and eventually did it with his fingers.
“He also said that he would use his penis to examine her and she refused,
he beat her and he subsequently started torturing her in the home because she
kept turning down his requests.”
Mr Idoko, who testified on November 21, 2019, denied seeing his daughter’s
nakedness and inserting his fingers into her private part to test her virginity
but said “My daughter is following bad friends, my neighbours said all sorts of
things about her. I initially did not believe it until I saw it myself on
November 21, 2017, I saw my daughter with some boys while her brother was in
the house watching television.
“When I called her name, the boys ran away and I asked her to tell me who
her boyfriend was.
“When I tried to beat her, she tried to fight me like those friends of hers
who beat up their parents. That was the reason I beat her that day,” he said.
When he was confronted with his police statement in which he admitted
seeing his daughter’s nakedness, Mr Idoko told the court that her clothes fell
off when she was struggling with him in his attempt to discipline her.
“I did not tear her clothes. I do not understand my statement, I was close
to fainting when the statement was written,” he said.
