An investment banker (name withheld) on Wednesday narrated to an Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court how a man he accommodated in his apartment allegedly defiled his eight-year-old daughter.
The banker testified as the first prosecution witness in the trial of one Evanus Onyebuchi for defilement.
The witness was led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Mrs Bola Akinsete.
He told the court that he met Onyebuchi sometime in 2018 while attending a training at a computer college in Lagos.
The witness said that he was approached by the defendant for financial assistance.
“He said he was working at Chivita, he said he was squatting with a friend and anytime he bought provisions, everything would finish.
“I felt sorry for him because I know how it is to be in need.
“He said that he needed accommodation. I spoke to the person in charge of the computer college, and I promised to assist him (the defendant) the following week.
“I gave him N80,000 and got a friend of mine to secure accommodation for him,” the witness said.
He added that Onyebuchi’s accommodation was not ready in time and he invited him to stay in his house with his family pending when he would move into his own apartment.
He said the defendant stayed in his home for three weeks during which his wife was not around.
He said he had three daughters – the older two at school and the youngest (eight-year-old) at home.
The father said his apartment was a two-bedroom, with he and his wife sharing a bedroom and his daughters sharing the other.
He said that during the period he accommodated Onyebuchi, he slept in the children’s bedroom with his eight-year-old daughter.
The witness said: “After a while, Evanus disappeared, and we did not see him for some weeks. When I did not see him again, I got a housemaid.
“One day, while I was at work, my wife who had returned, called me and told me that our youngest daughter was defiled by the defendant.
“She said that anytime our daughter was bathing, she would be crying because her private part was hurting her and that our daughter told her and the housemaid that Onyebuchi defiled her.
“Our daughter told us that uncle Evanus gave her blue (pornographic) films to watch, gave her alcohol to drink and threatened her that if she told her father what he was doing to her, he would kill her.”
The witness said that he treated Evanus like a brother.
“He used my car, clothes; no one in the area knew we are not related. My wife was not around and older daughters were in school.
“It was my daughter. Evanus and I in the house. He used to even help me to drop my daughter off at school,” he testified.
According to him, he then lured Onyebuchi back to the house and confronted him with the allegation.
“He initially denied it, he later started begging and prostrating. He was immediately taken to a police station,” the witness testified.
According to the prosecution, Onyebuchi committed the alleged offence at the complainant’s Lagos residence at 9.15p.m. on July 4, 2018, in contravention of Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos, 2015.
Justice Abiola Soladoye adjourned the case until Oct. 20, for cross-examination of the witness. (NAN)
