Justice Abiola Soladoye of the Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court, on Monday, sentenced a father, Ademola Oladimeji, to life imprisonment for sexually assaulting his three children.
The ages of the children were five, seven, and nine.
During the judgment, the judge affirmed the credibility and truthfulness of the prosecution witnesses’ testimonies. She further clarified that their evidence substantiated the charge of sexual assault through penetration, rather than defilement.
Justice Soladoye pointed out that the accounts provided by the three survivors were supported by both the investigative police officer and their mother.
She said: “Upon a careful review of the evidence before the court, the children did not say their father inserted his penis into their ‘bum bum’; they only said he touched their ‘bum bum’.
“I observed the three of them. They did not lie against their father, they did not say he used his penis, he only used his fingers.
“The children gave unshaken testimonies on how their father fiddled with their innocence multiple times by inserting his fingers into their vaginas.
“The wife of the defendant, in her testimony, said the children complained of pain in their private parts and she was informed at the Mirabel Medical Centre that the children had been sexually assaulted.”
The judge also noted that the convict, in an attempt to disassociate himself from the accusations, displayed a sense of desperation by denying the offenses.
“To the mind of this court, I do not believe his narration; though he denied fiddling with his daughters, his testimony did not add up.
“His narration shows how desperate he is to get out of the charge against his children.
“The court holds that there was penetration as oral and documentary evidence before the court pointed to the fact that the convict messed around with the purity of his three children,” the judge concluded.
Soladoye described the convict’s behavior as despicable, morally corrupt, incestuous, and contrary to the natural order.
The judge, noting that the prosecution fell short in proving the three counts related to defilement, subsequently amended them to charges of sexual assault by penetration and found him guilty on each count.
Oladimeji was also convicted on the fourth count of sexual assault by penetration, receiving a life imprisonment sentence for each count. The judge ruled that these sentences would run concurrently.
Soladoye specified that the convict’s name must be entered into the Lagos State Sexual Offences Register.
The state counsel, Mrs. Olufunke Adegoke, presented five witnesses who testified against the convict in support of the case, while the convict himself testified as the sole witness.