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Finally, 41-year-old teacher bags life sentence for defiling girl, six, in Lagos
Justice Sedoten Ogunsanya of the Lagos State High Court sitting in Ikeja, on Monday, handed down a life sentence to one Chukwu Ndubuisi, 41-year-old teacher of the Mind Builders Nursery and Primary School, Omole Phase 11, Ikeja, for raping a six-year-old girl on the school premises.
Ogunsanya, who gave the verdict after reviewing evidence by the prosecution, said there was no scintilla of doubt that he committed the offence during his period as a part-time art teacher at the school, in June 2016, for which he 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.
After 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, his case was to Ogunsanya after the legal advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) came out and at the prosecution, 13 witnesses testified against him, while he called nine witnesses in his defence.
Ogunsanya, before her verdict, cited several authorities, and held that the prosecution proved its case against the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt, saying: “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, who 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, said the second time the defendant defiled the victim was in the art room of the school, adding: “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.”
Stating that Ndubuisi, had unhindered access to the child and defiled her several times, 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, dismissing 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 and 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.
Pronouncing the sentence of life imprisonment, she said: “The defendant (Ndubuisi) is hereby sentenced to life imprisonment for the defilement of a child.”
News
BREAKING: All clear for Tinubu! S’Court dismisses PDP’s double nomination suit *Says, PDP a busy-body
For being a meddlesome interloper and a busy-body in bringing a case that was none of its business, the Supreme Court, on Friday slammed a N2million fine on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), over its suit demanding that the ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the February 25 presidential election be vitiated.
The main opposition party, had claimed that Kashim Shettima, being a candidate in a Senatorial election in Borno and as well as the running mate to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the APC presidential candidate in the election, amounted to double Nomination, which is forbidden by the law.
Based on that, the prayed the apex court to declare the ticket null and void and the votes recorded for it in the election, through which they were declared winner by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), wasted, a prayer, which if it had succeeded, would pave the way for Atiku Abubakar, the candidate of the party in the election to take over from Tinubu as the 16th President on Monday, when he is due to be inaugurated.
But the court, while dismissing the prayers, which originated from the Federal High Court Abuja, and travelled through the Court of Appeal, before it, agreeing with the positions of the lower courts which dismissed them on the ground of lacking in locus standi to institute the case.
But, Justice Adamu Jauro who read the Judgement, not only held that the PDP acted as meddlesome Interloper and a busy body as it is an internal affair of the APC, ordered the main opposition party to pay N2milllion, for its troubles, after establishing that its arguments tended to misleading the court, which was “sad”.
The court, which said it was aware of the case of Uche Nwosu, former governorship candidate in Imo State, the court, held that it did not applay in the instant case, as it agreed that Shettima withdrew his senate nomination on 6th July 2022 and was subsequently replaced and therefore, was no longer a candidate for the Senate before he picked up the running mate ticket, thus, making the allegation of multiple nomination untenable.
On the other hand, the court, held that Nwosu in his case, got nominated by two political parties for different positions, and having not being on all fours, PDP suit, was bound to fail right from the trial court, to the Court of Appeal, and the Supreme Court.
Accusing the PDP of attempts to use the social media to set a trap for the apex court to blackmail it, which he said was “painful, unfortunate and uncalled for,” the court said a political party had no right to challenge the action of another party, or the decision of INEC, in respect of another party, adding that for a person to have locus standi to challenge the nomination process of a political party, the person must be a neutral person and an aspirant to that position, and a member of the party.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is worried that the level of love Nigerians abroad share among themselves is not replicated at home, adding that a situation where they are quick to become friends outside and enemies at home, must be stop. The former President, who acknowledged how Nigerians in the diaspora were making the country proud in their different areas of endeavour, told participants at an evening reception held at New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA, that Nigerians in the diaspora must conduct themselves as good citizens wherever they domiciled.
Obasanjo, whose views were captured in a statement by, Kehinde Akinyemi, his spokesman, expressed satisfaction over the unity exhibited among Nigerians in the United States of America, urging them to reciprocate such togetherness when they are back home.
The former President, said to have spoken on behalf of a delegation of eminent traditional leaders and academics that included the Olowu of Owu Kingdom, Oba Saka Matemilola, was quoted as saying: “Nigerian nationals are often very united when they are abroad, but something else when they return to the country, therefore, I want to urge all to be good citizens, not only where you are, but when also you come home to Nigeria.”
The exchange of handshakes between veteran actors Pete Edochie and Kanayo O. Kanayo with Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyey Ogunwusi Enitan, has spurred a flurry of reactions on social media, The Nation, is reporting.
The paper, which reviewed the viral video shared on Thursday, where Edochie and Kanayo approached Ooni’s table at Elizabeth Jack Rich’s 40th birthday party on Tuesday and exchanged Igbo “cultural” handshakes with the monarch, acknowledged the different meanings being read into it.
Social media users on Twitter took to the comment section of the video with some knocking the actors for disrespecting the tradition by exchanging handshakes with the monarch, while others praised Ooni for showing respect to the Igbo culture.
Man of Letters said: “Igbakeji Oorisa?! It’s acceptable that he received the cross-culture respect handshake with Pete Edochie because the man Pete carry, but what’s his excuse for doing it with Kanayo O Kanayo??”
Kelvin Odanz said. “Is this ceremony holding in the Ooni palace? I mean, if an Igbo man (from a culture that doesn’t bow to another man) meets the Ooni in the UK for instance, is it disrespectful if he chooses to greet the respected Oba in a way he was brought up to respect dignitaries?”
Another user Onyemauchi tweeted: “This man supposed be King for him community”
Another tweep tracesorba wrote: “Igbos don’t bow down to any man, An evolved or wise man is their our own Chi.”
BREAKING: All clear for Tinubu! S’Court dismisses PDP’s double nomination suit *Says, PDP a busy-body
Nigerians must allow the love they share abroad resonate at home – Obasanjo
Uproar, social media exchange of fire, over Ooni’s handshake with Pete Edochie, KOK
In the military, INEC boss and his team would be executed – Bode George *Why put Tinubu’s boy in charge of IT?
I’ve paid a price for joining Obi to rescue Nigeria – Datti-Ahmed *Weeps on TV
BREAKING: Sorry, you can’t contest 2023 election, Atiku tells Tinubu
