MICHAEL AKINOLA
There was a mild drama in Court in Lagos State when a 20-year old lady, whose boyfriend, Victory Tasie, was arraigned for defiling her at 16, told the Court that she was not raped and she was 19 when she had consensual sex with the defendant and became pregnant.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that the lady stated this on Wednesday, 8th November, 2023, before the Ikeja Sexual and Domestic Violence Court, where she exposed her family and claimed that her family planned to jail her boyfriend.
The lady, whose boyfriend, Tasie, is facing trial for allegedly defiling her at age 16, mounted a spirited defence in favour of the defendant against her family unexpectedly.
While being led in evidence by the State counsel, Olufunke Adegoke, the witness admitted that the defendant was her boyfriend and the father of her newborn baby.
She further stated that she was 19 years old when she got pregnant and not 16 as her family and the prosecution team had claimed.
“Yes, I know the defendant. He is my boyfriend. I am here in this Court to say that he did not rape me and he is my boyfriend.”
“I was not 16 years old when I got pregnant, I was 19,” the nursing young mother stated before the Court.
She went further to claim that her family was conspiring to get her lover jailed, disclosing how her aunt’s husband was bitter because she had rejected his sexual advances and later got pregnant for another man.
“The human rights Police said we should do family planning and that I should start living with Victory Tasie but my aunt’s husband refused.”
“My aunt’s husband told me he was asking me out and I refused but I went to get pregnant for a wretched boy. I did not make any statement at the Police station that I was raped,” the lady stated.
The defendant ,Tasie, was charged before the Court for defilement.
However, he pleaded not guilty.
Hence, the Court adjourned for trial, which he is currently facing at the Court. He was accused of engaging in illicit sexual relations with the witness when she was sixteen years old.
However, the witness attested under cross-examination by defence attorney, Rukayat Owolabi, that she was 19 years old in 2022 and that the sexual relationship between her and the defendant was consensual.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Abiola Soladoye, futher adjourned the matter till 13th December, 2023, for continuation of trial.