Oga LecturerAn ex-supervisor of Chrisland School in Lekki, Lagos state has been sentenced to sixty years imprisonment for defiling a two year old girl of the school.
Adegboyega Adenekan was convicted by the Ikeja Sexual Offences and domestic violence following charges that he had sexual intercourse with a pupil in November 2016 before he was arraigned on January 29, 2018.
An action that contravenes Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011, which provides for life sentence for anyone convicted of defiling a child.
Adenekan however pleaded not guilty of the charge, presented five witnesses including himself and the Head teacher of the nursery arm of the school.
However, Adenekan admitted knowing three children (the victim and two of her friends) who have been withdrawn by their parents for reasons unknown to the court.
He admitted to visiting the children in their classroom even though it was not allowed for the defendant to visit the girl-child in classroom.
The sitting Judge on the case, Sybil Nwaka while giving her judgement stated that the prosecution was able to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.
Before convicting Adenekan, Nwaka said the pupil had high intelligence quotient and could give a vivid and consistent narration of how she was defiled by Adenekan while she was wearing her school uniform.
She noted that the child testified that she was defiled twice by Adenekan – once in his office and the second time in a hall.
Nwaka said the essential ingredients to prove a charge of defilement was that the defendant had sexual intercourse with a child less than 11 years, and that there was penetration into the vagina.
Narrating her premise of judgement to the court, Nwaka said, “Sexual intercourse can be by hand, penis, cucumber or any blunt object, sexual intercourse is essentially the insertion of the penis into the vagina for pleasure, reproduction or both”.
“There are other types of sexual intercourse; oral sex, anal sex or fingering, in our present case, the victim said Adenekan put his finger in her ‘wee-wee’ (vagina), put his ‘wee-wee’ ( penis) in her ‘wee-wee’, and his mouth in her ‘wee-wee’.
Nwaka noted that there is certainty of penetration, “penetration, however slight, is sufficient; it is not necessary if injury is caused or the hymen ruptured”, she said.
She added that the prosecution’s claim of penetration was corroborated by Exhibits E1 to E3, a medical report confirming penetration.
During the judgement that lasted for over two hours, Nwaka advised that schools should not only be interested in economic gain but also the welfare of pupils and should not cover up teachers who sexually abuse children.
“Parents should not be carried away by the aesthetics of schools. “This case may just be the tip of the iceberg as a lot of our children are suffering in silence,” she said.
Charging parents to be bold enough to confront teachers and school management about cases of this sort, she recommend that the education and social welfare ministries should visit schools randomly to give them a check.