CYRIACUS IZUEKWE
Justice may have come the way of an 18-year old girl, who was raped for 12 years, impregnated and underwent several abortions by her biological father in Lagos State.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that the 52-year old father, Akin Isaac, has been jailed 21 years by the Ikeja Special Offences Court on Thursday with hard Labour for raping his daughter after he was found guilty for the offence.
Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo sentenced the man, Isaac, to the term of the imprisonment following his plea of guilty to the one count preferred against him by the Lagos State Government.
During the arraignment, the State’s Prosecution Counsel, Omowumi Bajulaye-Bishi, told the Court that Isaac started defiling his daughter from the age of six to age 18, impregnated and induced abortions on her, which the offence committed contravened Section 137 of the Criminal Law Cap C.17 Vol. 3 Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
In her judgment on the plea bargain agreement the convict signed with the state, the judge, Justice Taiwo stated that the 21 years proposed sentence by the Ministry of Justice, was too small to the offence which carried life imprisonment.
She held, “I knew this case very well, I could remember the survivor was crying when giving evidence before the Court that she had abortion and how the defendant had beaten her. The prosecution had called four witnesses, who testified against the defendant. The defendant initially pleaded not guilty”.
Justice Taiwo, who handed down the sentence to Isaac, had also directed the Court Registrar to put the defendant in the witness box to go through the process of plea bargain, wherein he was asked whether he was forced or coerced by anybody whatsoever to change his plea from not guilty to guilty.
While he was in the dock, Isaac answered that he decided to change his plea and started pleading with the Court to have mercy on him.
However, Bajulaye-Bishi, while reviewing the facts of the case, said between 2014 and 2020, the defendant was having unlawful sexual intercourse with his daughter, which resulted into at least one pregnancy.
“The defendant also attempted to procure abortion for her and regularly administer drugs to her to prevent pregnancy.”
“Trial commenced on 7th February, 2022, in which the prosecution called four witnesses before the defendant approached the prosecution to change his plea.”
The Court, consequently the admitted the convict’s plea of guilty and sentenced him accordingly, which entails he will come out of prison custody at the age of 73 years.