An Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court, on Tuesday, set free a driver, Afeez Balogun, after spending three years in prison for an alleged defilement of a two-year-old child.
Balogun was a driver at Holbrook Creche Nursery and Primary School, Pedro, Gbagada, Lagos, where he was accused of defiling the pupil of the school.
The trial judge, Justice Abisola Soladoye acquitted Balogun following failure by the prosecution to prove beyond reasonable doubt, the charge of defilement brought against him.
The judge berated the Directorate of Public Prosecution (DPP) and the Police over their handling of the case, saying their investigations of the case was shoddy.
Balogun was 27 years old when he was remanded at the Correctional Center over the allegations. He is now 30 years old.
Acquitting the defendant, the judge said the police did not investigate the case thoroughly before presenting it before the DPP.
“The police was shoddy in investigating this case. The State prosecution service domiciled in the DPP cannot be completely exonerated of blame,” she said.
The judge further said: “There ought to be closer interaction with the authorities and the DPP’s office as each case is being investigated. It is not enough to be handing legal advice at the conclusion of investigations. The prosecution mainly the lawyers must be actively involved in ensuring that evidence is properly gathered, meticulously evaluated and every appropriate lead is followed;
“Unless investigations are carried out in a painstaking, thorough manner, sloppy investigations shall continue to be the bane of this criminal justice system. The resultant effect is that criminals and offenders will go free, victims will be let down by the system and justice will not have been seen to have been done,” she said.
The judge faulted the inability of the police to conduct an identification parade as required by law to properly identify who molested the minor in the school.
She described the identification parade conducted by the school in which the minor picked out the defendant as the perpetrator as “self serving and does not have any efficacy in law”.
Soladoye noted that failure by the minor to identify the defendant in the dock made the prosecution’s case “collapse like a pack of cards” and described the trial as a colossal waste of judicial time and resources.
Reacting to the judgment, Balogun’s lawyer, Mr. Oluwole Kehinde, expressed satisfaction with the verdict.
“There is no cohesion between the police, lawyers and the justice ministry and the judges bear the brunt,” he said.
According to the prosecution led by Mr. Olusola Soneye, the defendant, a staffer Holbrook Creche Nursery and Primary School, committed the offence sometime in July 2018.
Four witnesses – the minor, her mother, a doctor and a police officer – testified for the prosecution during the trial. The medic, Dr Oyedeji Alagbe, in his evidence, told the court that the child was incoherent during his interactions with her.
Alagbe said she was, however, able to identify a dummy penis shown to her as what was used to defile her. The child while testifying in court, failed to identify the defendant in court as her abuser but rather kept mentioning a “Mr Wale” as the perpetrator.