A-26-year-old woman, Deborah Osondu has narrated how a relative, Chinyere Osondu, aged 39, sexually assaulted her daughter (names withheld).
Lagos re-arraigns woman over assault
Following the re-arraignment of the defendant who is standing trial on a 4-count charge of assault, Deborah, the alleged victim’s mother confronted the suspect that she inserted a stick into her daughter’s vagina.
The Lagos State Government had on Tuesday re-arraigned Chinyere for a four-count charge bordering on sexual assault by penetration, assault, wounding, and grievious harm.
The offences are contrary to Sections 173,261,246 and 245 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State.
The State Prosecutor alleged that Chinyere, at different times in September 2019 till November 2021, at 15 Victory Crescent Iyana Ibiye, Morogbo, Lagos in Ikeja Judicial Division sexually assaulted the six-year-old by inserting a stick into her vagina.
The state government also alleged that the defendant assaulted the victim by hitting her head with a padlock, beating her with broomsticks and thereby inflicting injuries all over her body, especially her back and hands and by hitting her head and causing swelling and bruises on her head sometimes between September 2019 till November 2021.
However, the defendant has denied the charges.
‘… sexually assaulted my daughter’
While being led in evidence by State Counsel Inumidun Solarin, Deborah told the court that Chinyere perpetrated the acts against her daughter. She said her daughter informed her of the assaults while the doctor who medically examined her also confirmed alledged sexual assault by penetration.
Narrating before Justice Rahman Oshodi of a Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court in Ikeja, the victim’s mother explained, ‘My daughter told me that she inserted a stick in her vagina when she went to wake her up, hit a padlock on her head and that she was bleeding. She also beats her with wire and brooms on her back because she wee-wee on the bed.”
Under cross-examination by the defendant’s lawyer, the suvivour’s mother told the trial judge, that Chinyere was able to assault her child when she took the child to live with her grandfather who was married to her.
She claimed she allowed the child to go for a vacation at her in-laws’ house against her wish but her husband who was living in Dubai at the time permitted that the victim should go for a holiday but was not returned to her.
She claimed the defendant took over the custody of her child so she could be using her to collect money from her husband who was out of the country.
She said as soon as the child was living with her in-laws, it became almost impossible for her to gain access to her first child, as several efforts to speak with her via the phone or visit her were met with hostile resistance.
In her words, “She did not give me access to her since she took her for vacation. I do not have access to my child. If I called, she will be giving me excuses and sometimes handed over the phone to her children. As of September 2019, and 2020, I did not see my child for about 10 months.”
The first prosecution witness also told the open court how the defendant took her to church for what she described as protection. At the same time, she was pregnant with the victim, stating that it was also hectic for her daughter to see her during service at their Philadelphia Sabbath Church of Christ, where she was taken to by the defendant.
She claimed, “She is a member of the church, even during church service, my daughter had to sneak under the chair to meet me and she would still beat her when they got home.”
Responding to the probings of the defence counsel on evidence of her allegation, the witness replied, “Her leg, her back and her neck, even her eyes were swollen. Marks were on her.”
She added that her child informed her that the suspect assaulted her because of bed-wetting and not as claimed by the defendant that she uncontrollably excreted.
The mother said, “My daughter said it is Mrs. Chinyere who said she should come and wake her up when she wants to urinate but when she does, she will beat her and that’s why she bed-wets.
When she was asked if she saw the stick and padlock used on her child, her reply was, “I did not see the stick. It’s the doctor who told me what my daughter told her. My daughter also told me that the padlock at the entrance was used on her.”
However, the defence lawyer argued that the complainant was being manipulated by extended family members because they wanted to take over one of the houses belonging to the defendant’s husband who had died in 2021.
Asked by the defendant’s counsel who reported the case, the victim’s mother said she reported the case at Odofa Morogbo Police Station along Badagry in the company of her brother-in-law, one Ekene and sister-in-law, Mary. She claimed that when some sort of undertaking was said to be signed at the Police Station for resolution of the matter, Deborah replied, “I was not there.”
However, the lawyer submitted, “You are aware that your purported husband and brother-in-law wanted the defendant to get out of the house and they have been using you to get her out of the house.
She said she didn’t know about that.
Thereafter, the court was cleared for the testimony of the young girl, away from the earshot of the journalists.
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