MICHAEL AKINOLA
A 32-year old man, Essien Aniedi-Bassey, will be spending the next 21 years in prison custody for sexually assaulting a 10-year old girl by touching her breasts in Lagos State.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that it was the judgment of the Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court, which found him guilty and sentenced him accordingly.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Abiola Soladoye, sentenced Aniedi-Bassey to the prison term after he pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault by penetration and indecent treatment of a child under the Criminal Laws of the State.
“The combined term of the 21 years imprisonment shall begin from March 23, 2018,” the judge held.
The convict was arrested and charged before the Court after the victim exposed him and reported what happened to her parents, who then reported the matter to the Police. Thus, he was arrested and found culpable after interrogation.
The State Counsel, Ms Abimbola Abolade, had presented two witnesses, the survivor and an Investigative Police Officer (IPO), before the convict opted for a plea bargain agreement having realized that he may get maximum punishment because of the weight of the evidence against him.
Abolade had told the Court that the convict committed the offence sometimes in August 2017 at Araromi, Valley Estate in Ojodu, Lagos.
She submitted that the convict attempted to defile a minor.
The prosecution also told the Court that the convict indecently treated the survivor by touching her breasts and the offence contravened Sections 135 and 262 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, (2015).