Admin l Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019
LAGOS, Nigeria – A middle aged driver, Jelili Lawal is now cooling his head in jail on the orders of an Ikeja Chief Magistrates’ Court for sexually assaulting a septuagenarian by forcefully having access to her vagina, contrary to section 261 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015 (Revised).
Although the accused, brought before the court on Wednesday, denied committing the offence, the Chief Magistrate, Mrs B.O. Osunsanmi, ordered that he be remanded in the Kirikiri Prisons, pending advice from the State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). She adjourned the case until Feb. 18 for hearing.
The accused, who resides at 16, Lagos Street, Agege, Lagos, was docked for rape. Earlier, the prosecutor, Insp. Rapheal Donny, told the court that the driver committed the offence Jan. 1, at 9.00 p.m. at Oloti Village, off Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja. Donny said that the accused unlawfully assaulted the 78-year-old and hard carnal knowledge of her.
He told the court that the incident was reported by a resident in the area, who was alerted when the victim started wailing and immediately informed the police who caught the accused in the act. Edgal Imohimi, the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State Police Command,who earlier paraded the suspect, said that the victim, who was going to her residence in the Ketu area of Lagos, was said to have missed her way before the accused offered her a lift to her destination.
“The victim, who was delighted at Lawal’s offer, never suspected that he had other ulterior motives; he drove her to another location to perpetuate the crime. The woman’s cry for help alerted a resident, who informed the police, who came to rescue her and arrested Lawal.
Imohimi said, “On Jan. 1, 2019, around 8.00 p.m., a woman, 78, met one Jelili Lawal, at Maryland and told him that she had missed her way and did not know how to get to her house in Ketu.
“The said Jelili Lawal offered to help her. The woman was delighted and she boarded the bus, unknown to her that Lawal had other intentions. The suspect drove the victim to a location in Oloti village, off Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja, and raped her without regards to her age.
“While the suspect was at it, the woman let out a cry that attracted someone in the neighbourhood, who quickly called the police and directed them to the location where the cry emanated from.
“That was how the police caught the suspect in the act and rescued the old woman, who was already bleeding from her private parts, as a result of the assault on her dignity.” Imohimi said
