Lagos-based physician Dr Femi Olaleye, whose conviction for sexual offences was overturned last year by the Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal, is expected to appear before Maidstone Crown Court in Kent, United Kingdom, on Friday, December 5, to face a fresh set of sexual-offence charges.
UK authorities say the alleged offences occurred years before Olaleye relocated to Nigeria, and long before his prosecution there. The case—No. 46/XY/11332/23—is listed for 9 a.m. at the Kent court.
Law enforcement sources told SaharaReporters that Olaleye was arrested last Thursday at Heathrow Airport and is currently being held at North Kent Police Station in Northfleet, ahead of his arraignment.
Olaleye, once described as a father figure to the alleged victim, is also accused of attempting to bribe the minor to alter her testimony, an offer she reportedly rejected.
Read Also: Lagos doctor, Femi Olaleye, freed weeks after Appeal Court nullified his rape conviction
The doctor’s legal troubles span two countries. In 2023, he was convicted by Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Lagos Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court and sentenced to life imprisonment. But in November 2024, the Lagos Court of Appeal set aside the verdict, citing inconsistencies in the prosecution’s evidence.
Unwilling to let the matter rest, the Lagos State Government, acting through the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, has filed an appeal at the Supreme Court, seeking to reinstate the original conviction. A hearing date has not been fixed.
In its notice of appeal, Lagos State argues that the appellate judgment undermined the credibility of trial-court findings in sensitive sexual-offence cases and relied on what it called “misplaced” technicalities. The government is pressing the Supreme Court to clarify whether the Court of Appeal erred by questioning the uncontested age of the victim, a key element in charges of child defilement and sexual assault under Lagos law.
Legal analysts say the case could become a defining test for how Nigerian appellate courts treat sexual-violence prosecutions, particularly those involving minors.
Meanwhile, UK authorities are examining what sources describe as multiple allegations linked to Olaleye during his earlier years in London, before he reportedly left the country and later faced similar accusations in Nigeria.
Olaleye, Medical Director of the Optimal Cancer Care Foundation, departed Nigeria shortly after the appellate court freed him, only to be detained on arrival in the UK, where his past appears to have caught up with him once again.
