A 27-year-old man, Bayo Lawal, charged with rape of a minor was on Tuesday arraigned at a Yaba Chief Magistrates’ Court in Lagos. Lawal, who resides at 16, Afolabi street, Ikotun, Lagos, was alleged to have defiled the minor, a five-year-old girl, in an uncompleted building in the area.
The prosecutor, ASP Godwin Anyanwu, told the court that the accused allegedly committed the offence at about 11 a.m. on May 25.
According to Anyanwu, the girl was playing within their compound when the accused called her and lured her away.
“Lawal took the five-year-old girl to an uncompleted building beside her home and had sex with her. He attempted to escape through the window when he heard the child’s mother calling her,” he told the court.
He said that when the girl came out of the building, she was soiled with semen, adding that the girl’s mother immediately raised alarm and the accused was apprehended.
The prosecutor said that the offence contravened section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos state, 2011.
Section 137 prescribes life imprisonment for anyone found liable of defilement of a minor. Lawal, however, pleaded not guilty to the charge.
The Magistrate, Mrs. Yewande Aje-Afunwa, granted the accused bail in the sum of N1million, with two sureties each in like sum. Aje-Afunwa also ordered that the accused should deposit N200,000 with the court’s Deputy Registrar.
He adjourned the case to July 14 for legal advice from the state’s Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). (NAN)
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