An Ikeja Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday remanded a 22-year-old car washer, Onyekazuru Samuel, who allegedly defiled his neighbour’s 13-year-old daughter.
The defendant, who resides at Oko-Oba, Agege, Lagos State, is standing trial for defilement.
The court could not take his plea as the Magistrate, Mrs. B.O. Osunsanmi, said that she needed advice from the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions.
She ordered that Samuel should be kept at the Kirikiri Prisons, Lagos State, pending the advice.
Osunsanmi adjourned the case until May 13 for mention.
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The prosecutor, ASP Ezekiel Ayorinde, had submitted that the defendant had sexual intercourse with his neighbour’s daughter, in contravention of Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
Ayorinde said that the defendant committed the crime on March 22 at his residence.
“The defendant sent the girl to buy “garri” and sugar for him; when the girl returned and handed over the items to him, he dragged her inside his room.
“The defendant forcefully removed her clothes and underwear and had canal knowledge of her.
“The girl started bleeding; when her mother noticed, she told her what the defendant did to her.
‘The case was reported and the accused was arrested,” the prosecutor told the court.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that child defilement can be punished with up to life imprisonment. (NAN)