UPDATED: Baba Ijesha jailed 16 years - AfrobadooTV
Connect with us

Crime

UPDATED: Baba Ijesha jailed 16 years

Published

on

Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of the Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court on Thursday sentenced a Nollywood actor, Olanrewaju Omiyinka, aka Baba Ijesha, to 16 years imprisonment.

Baba Ijesha is facing six counts of child defilement that include indecent treatment of a child, sexual assault, attempted sexual assault by penetration and sexual assault by penetration.

The Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions, which proffered the charges against the actor, argued that the offences contravene Section 135, 137, 261, 202, 262 and 263 of the Lagos State Criminal Law 2015, which stipulates life imprisonment for offenders.

Baba Ijesha pleaded not guilty to all the counts. However, a Closed-Circuit Television video recording detailing his relationship with the victim said to be a minor was played in court.

 

Delivering the judgement, Justice Taiwo said that the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of all the charges against him.

However, she found the defendant guilty of four of the six counts against him.

Baba Ijesha was found guilty of count two, three, four and five.

For count two, he was jailed for three years; count three, five years; count four, three years and sentenced five years for count five.

The justice said the jail terms are to run concurrently for five years.

The defendant was arraigned on June 24, 2021. During the trial, six prosecution witnesses testified against him.

They were actress and comedienne, Princess, the 14-year-old minor, a child expert, Mrs Olabisi Ajayi-Kayode, and medical doctor, Dr Aniekan Makanjuola.

Others were the Investigating Police Officer, ASP Wahab Kareem, and a policewoman, Inspector Abigail Omane.

The DPP closed its case against the defendant on December 15, 2021, while Baba Ijesha called four witnesses and closed its defence on April 1.

The defence witnesses were Baba Ijesha (defendant) and Mr Lawrence Ayeni, an expert in video production and CCTV installation and maintenance.

Mr Olukayode Olugbemi, a clinical psychologist and Mr Olukayode Ogunbanjo, the defendant’s friend and colleague also testified for the defence.

Defence counsel, Mr Dada Awosika (SAN), in adopting his final written address dated May 12 and filed on May 16, urged the court to dismiss the suit and discharge the defendant.

Awosika argued that the footage of the CCTV was illegally obtained.

He had said, “In the interest of justice, exhibit A which was the CCTV footage that recalled the event was illegally obtained.

“The exhibit was not tendered by the maker. It was tendered by Princess, the complainant.”

Baba Ijesha gets more social media followers, charges fees for birthday greetings
He argued that the recording had been tampered with especially since the defendant did not go to the complainant’s house uninvited.

He further submitted that the alleged confessional statement of the defendant failed the provision of Section 9 (3 ) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) of Lagos State 2021.

“The Evidence Act allows legislation to guide the admissibility of documents before the court. ACJL has stated that if a confessional statement is to be used, it must meet some certain degree by ACJL which is not applied in this case.

“We urge the court to discredit the confessional statement. The defendant moved in a jiffy to participate in a short skit that put him in trouble. My Lord, my client was trapped.

“Concerning the age of the girl in question, Exhibits D and E are not saying the same thing.

“It is our submission My Lord, that the court is bound to call the biological mother inside the box to tell us her real age or her birth certificate or scientific evidence is tendered to ascertain the age but none was done.

“The prosecution agreed that the age of the minor must be established. However, it has also agreed that nothing has been done to provide the real age,” Awosika said.

The Director of DPP, Dr Babajide Martins, in his final written address dated May 31, however, urged the court to convict Baba Ijesha as charged.

He argued that one of the defence witnesses, Mr Lawrence Ayeni, told the court that the CCTV recording could not be manipulated.

“On the issue of the CCTV recording My Lord, the first defence witness (Ayeni) told this honourable court during cross-examination that it cannot be manipulated and that the content of CCTV cannot be changed.

“Most importantly, he said he cannot say if the sexual assault did not happen. These are the testimonies from the defence witness My Lord.

“The defendant admitted to have been with the girl in both the incident that happened seven years ago and the one that happened in 2021.

“He also admitted to have sucked her fingers during the cross-examination.

“On the issue of ACJL, the primary legislation supersedes the secondary legislation.

“On the issue of a medical certificate, the defendant said he did not have any issue with the medical doctor and had never met him when I cross-examined him.

“As a result, he has no reason to mislead the court,” Martins said.

Martins further told the court that the definition of a child was anybody below the age of 18 years and that the prosecution had proven that the girl was below the age.

The DPP said the defendant also admitted during the trial that he never mentioned that he was acting a script when he was detained by the police at Sabo and Panti.

PUNCH

Advertisement

You may like

Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

Crime

How to report POS agents selling new naira notes – CBN

Published

on

By

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has released emergency telephone numbers to the public to officially report erring Point of Sales (POS) agents selling new naira notes and those selling charging exorbitantly for withdrawal.

The Director, CBN Governor’s Department, Mr Joseph Omayuku, made this known during a briefing with journalists in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital on Tuesday.
While warning syndicates engaging in illegal practices to desist forthwith, Omayuku advised members of the public to report erring PoS agents by reaching out to the CBN contact centre on 07002255226; Telephone Ext: 711025 – 7; contactcbn@cbn.gov.ng and its social media handles.

The scarcity of the new naira notes has been biting Nigerians so hard, with many rejecting the old notes as legal tender, while some state governors have resolved to sue the Federal Government for the challenges experienced in their respective states.

Despite the hardship with the redesign policy, there are still complaints of hitches in online payment platforms of banks leading to failed transactions.
Observers said the hitches occur because digital platforms are not strong enough to accommodate the surge of electronic transactions in recent times as people resort to online payments in response to the scarcity of cash.

Those who reject online payments cite challenges associated with it as reasons.

The CBN official, however, countered the analogy, saying it is “not as bad as to warrant rejection of transfer payments.”

Meanwhile, Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr Godwin Emefiele on Tuesday told the Diplomatic Corps that an extension of the February 10 deadline for the circulation of the redesigned N200, N500 and N1, 000 notes was unnecessary.

He blamed the scarcity of the new notes on the activities of some unscrupulous bankers and members of the society, who were trying to sabotage the policy, warning that such people would be sanctioned along with Point of Sales, POS, operators imposing heavy charges on customers.

The CBN governor said: “PoS agents who are supposed to help are getting involved in these activities.

‘’We have EFCC, ICPC working with our monitoring team to arrest any PoS agent that charges any fee because we have made it clear that whatever is their fee, which is not meant to be more than N200 for any amount you exchange that we, CBN, will pay as part of our effort to lessen the burden of this problem.”

Continue Reading

Crime

PHOTOS: Soldiers Raid IPOB Hideout In Search Of Abducted Colleague

Published

on

 

The Nigerian Army has revealed that it raided the hideouts of Indigenous People Of Biafra/Eastern Security Network in Amangu Community, Abia State, in attempts to rescue an abducted soldier, Staff Sergeant Bassey Ikunugwan.

In a statement released on Wednesday, the Army said that Ikunugwan, who was on leave was abducted along the Road Okwu-Ebem Ohafia, on November 2.

Weapons, mobile phones, motorcycle, INEC equipment and other items were recovered during the multi-day raids.

Credit: Facebook | HQ Nigerian Army

Continue Reading

Crime

Police find missing seven-year-old boy in Osun

Published

on

Osun State Police Police Command, on Wednesday, announced that it found one Abiodun Olokede, a seven-year-old missing boy and is still in their custody.

This was made known to the public through a series of tweets on the Twitter handle of the state command.

The tweet partly read, “Good morning beautiful people. There’s a child who got lost and was found in the Oke Ila Police division, Osun State.

“The said child is still with the police.

“In an effort to locate his parents/guardians, the child took police officers to a few places, surprisingly, he was denied everywhere.

“With the support of good people of this state, we can help circulate this information everywhere for possible contact with his parents please,” it added.

PUNCH

 

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2017 Zox News Theme. Theme by MVP Themes, powered by WordPress.

%d bloggers like this: