By Blessing Udeobasi
Nollywood actor, Olanrewaju James, better known in movie circles as Baba Ijesha is set to face judgement on July 14 at the Ikeja Special Offences Court for allegedly defiling a 14-year-old girl.
Baba Ijesha was charged by the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions (DPP) and is facing a six-count charge of indecent treatment of a child, s3xual assault, attempted s3xual assault by penetration and s3xual assault by penetration for which he pleaded not guilty.
The presiding judge, Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo on Monday adjourned the case for judgment after the prosecution and defence counsel had adopted their final written addresses.
The Director of DPP, Babajide Martins, in his last written address dated May 31 urged the court to convict Baba Ijesha as charged.
He argued that one of the defence witnesses, Lawrence Ayeni, told the court that the CCTV recording could not be manipulated.
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“On the issue of the CCTV recording My Lord, the first defence witness(Ayeni) told this honourable court during cross-examination that it cannot be manipulated and that the content of CCTV cannot be changed.
“Most importantly, he said he cannot say if the s3xual assault did not happen. These are the testimonies from the defence witness, My Lord.
“The defendant admitted to having been with the girl in both the incident that happened seven years ago and the one that happened in 2021.
“He also admitted to have sucked her fingers during the cross-examination,” he said adding that the charge of defilement could be meted out irrespective of the age below 18.
“We have compelling evidence of six prosecution witnesses which I must say are not contradictory,” Mr Martins said.
The DPP said the defendant also admitted during the trial that he never mentioned that he was acting a script when the police detained him at Sabo and Panti.
