An Ikeja High Court on Thursday sentenced a motorcyclist, Monday Olukunle (alias Seaman) to seven years imprisonment for abducting a 16-year-old girl.
Olukunle allegedly abducted the girl in an uncompleted building with others still at large on Sept. 30, 2022, on Ralitu Daramola Street, Abogunleko, Ikotun in Lagos, according to the prosecution counsel.
The prosecution called three witnesses through whom several documents were tendered and the the convict solely defended himself.
While delivering her judgment on Thursday, Justice Oyindamola Ogala convicted Olukunle of the charge of conspiracy and abduction.
Ogala, however, discharged the convict of the charge of defilement.
The court held that the prosecution was unable to prove beyond reasonable doubt the charge of defilement because the key witnesses were not in court to testify.
She said the court relied on the confessional statement of the convict to find him guilty of conspiracy and abduction.
“The alleged victim did not testify or identify the defendant,” the judge said.
“It is instructive that neither the persons who arrested the defendant, the alleged friend nor the chairman of the estate testified in respect of the charge of defilement linking the defendant with the direct act.
“These witnesses are vital in establishing the guilt of the defendant.
“This Honourable court, therefore, finds that the prosecution failed to satisfy that the defendant indeed defiled the said victim.”
The court further held that the evidence of prosecution witnesses two and three sufficiently corroborated the fact of the confession of the convict.
The court said the attempt to dissociate him from the entirety of the events of the incident was an afterthought which did not hold water.
The judge ordered that the convict’s term should commence on September 30, 2022.