Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence court in Ikeja has found a-50-year-old real estate agent, Harrison Ekeoma guilty of raping 12-year-old maid in Lagos.
Thereafter, the trial judge convicted and sentenced him to life imprisonment for defilement of a minor.
According to Justice Oshodi, “I am convinced that the defendant had unlawful sexual intercourse with the prosecutrix.”
“He held that the prosecution proved the case beyond reasonable doubt against the defendant.
Four witnesses testified against the convict.
The charge read: “That Harrison Ekeoma on or around January 2023 at Ogba in Ikeja Judicial Division unlawfully defiled a girl aged 12-year-old by having unlawful sexual intercourse with her.
The offence contravenes Sections 137 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
Trouble began for the convict following the testimony of the survivor’s mother who narrated that she came from Enugu in 2022 in search of a job.
According to her, she got a job in Ojodu Berger but had accommodation problem.
She told the court further that she gave her daughter to the defendant’s wife to help her with house chores with agreement to send the survivor to school.
However, anytime the defendant’s wife goes to shop, he will ask the survivor to watch ponographic film with him and thereafter tells her that they should do same.
Police investigations revealed that Ekeoma had sex with the survivor for uncountable times in the house and threatened her not to tell anyone until in 2023 when she used a security man’s phone number to call her mother who was in Ojodu Berger to inform her about what she was passing through in her guardian’s house.
Justice Oshodi held that, “The defendant was supposed to be a guardian to the defendant but treated her in an imaginable way. You abused her repeatedly over a period of time. You showed no remorse or apologetic throughout the trial.”
Consequently, the court sentenced Ekeoma to life imprisonment for raping a-12-year-old minor.
The court also directed that the convict’s name be entered into the Lagos State Sexual Offences Register.
