Mental health and child abuse experts maintain that perpetrators are like any of us and they are living in our homes and neighbourhoods. A hard but scary truth no doubt!
Could it then be sadism or mental problem that motivated 28-year-old Agboola Adebayo to defile a 9-month-old baby girl? What could have been the attraction?
Well, on Monday, a Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court sitting at Ikeja, Lagos remanded a 28-year-old applicant, Agboola Adebayo, in a correctional centre for defiling a 9-month-old baby.
The Lagos State government arraigned Adebayo, whose residential address was not given, on a two-count charge of defilement and causing grievous harm to the baby.
He pleaded guilty to the charge.
Justice Rahman Oshodi thereafter remanded Adebayo at the correctional facility and adjourned the case till March 25 for hearing.
The state counsel, Ms Bukola Okeowo, had informed the court that Adebayo committed the offence on March 23, 2023 in the White Sand Area of Ijora, Badiya, in the Apapa-Iganmu Local Council Development Area of the state.
The prosecutor who said the defendant defiled the baby by having unlawful sexual intercourse with her further disclosed that he caused grievous harm to the child by inflicting serious injuries on her vagina.
The offence contravenes the Criminal Laws of Lagos State (2015) and is punishable by life imprisonment.
Prior to Adebayo’s arrest last year after the incident, PUNCH Metro gathered that the suspect, went into hiding after perpetrating the crime.
Confirming his arrest at the time, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, told PUNCH that upon noticing that the mother of the baby had gone out to buy something, he entered their room and defiled the baby.
Hundeyin further explained that when the mother of the baby returned, she noticed that her baby had been defiled and rushed to a nearby police station to lodge a complaint.
The policemen at the station, while attending to the aggrieved mother, gave her a medical form to enable her to take her child to the hospital for urgent medical treatment, and commenced an investigation.
According to Hundeyin: “The case was reported to the police around 10pm on Monday by a concerned member of the public. The suspect allegedly went to the apartment where the baby’s mother laid her on the floor and quickly went out to buy something outside the compound, had sexual intercourse with the little baby, and immediately ran away from the scene.
“The mother of the baby, aged 16, came to the station with the baby and was issued a medical form to enable her to take the child to the hospital for urgent medical attention. However, on Tuesday, around 11pm, the suspect was smoked out from his hiding by detectives attached to the Ijora Badia Division.”
The Command Spokesman said an under pants stained with blood was recovered at the crime scene, adding that the suspect confessed to the crime during interrogation and willingly gave his statement.
