A 41-year-old man, Josiah Bassey, who allegedly defiled two sisters, aged three and seven, was on Thursday remanded in Kirikiri Prisons by an Ogudu Magistrates’ Court.
The Magistrate, Mrs E. Kubeinje, refused to take the plea of the defendant when the charge was read to him in court.
Kubeinje said that the defendant should be kept behind bars pending the legal advice from the State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
“Because of the sensitivity of the case, it is difficult to grant bail. The case file should be duplicated and sent to the office of the DPP for advice,” she said
Kubeinje then adjourned the case until May 28 for mention.
Bassey, who resides at Agidi in Alapere area of Lagos, is being tried for unlawful sexual intercourse with minor.
The Police Prosecutor, Insp. Lucky Ihiehie, told the court that the defendant committed the offence sometime in 2018 at the above address in Lagos.
Ihiehie said that the defendant, who was a neighbour to the parents of the girls, unlawfully defiled her.
The prosecutor said that the defendant defiled the girls on different occasion pretending to visit the couple.
“The older of the sisters later told her mother what the defendant did to her which led to the knowledge of what the younger girl also experienced in the hands of the defendant and he was arrested,” Ihiehie told the court.
The offence contravened Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015, which prescribes life imprisonment for defilement.
