A 35-year-old bus driver, Adeleke Adetayo, who
was charged with sleeping with his nine-year-old
and 13-year-old daughters, has been sentenced
by the Family Court unit of an Ikeja Chief
Magistrate’s Court to 14 years imprisonment.
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In July 2013, It was reported how Adetayo’s two
daughters were rescued after a s*xual abuse that
lasted two years.
Another report was published in December 2013,
detailing the children’s life at the Lagos State
Children’s Home, where they lamented that they
had been scarred for life as a result of the abuse
they suffered from their father.
The six-month trial of Adetayo culminated in him
finally pleading guilty to s*xual assault of his
children.
In her judgement, Chief Magistrate A. Oshoniyi
found Adetayo guilty of s*xual abuse and child
defilement, sentencing him to seven years each
for the crime against each child.
The judgment has been hailed by activists and
government officials involved in the case, who
stated that it was a victory for the Child Rights
Act, 2005, which has hitherto been flouted by
many criminals.
The Child Rights Act prescribes a sentence of 14
years for a person found guilty of having s*xual
intercourse with a child.
Director of the Esther Child Rights Foundation,
Mrs. Esther Ogwu, who rescued the children and
handed them over to the Lagos State Ministry of
Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviationn, hailed the
judgment as a message to paedophiles in the
state that the law would catch up with them.
She said, “I cannot be happier about how this
case turned out. It is not only about the fact that
the law has prevailed but that it is now clear that
child defilement cases can be effectively
prosecuted.
“Anybody who feels that defiling children is their
core competence should understand that it is just
a matter of time, the law will catch up with them.
The lives of those children have been changed
forever, their father should spend some time to
ruminate about that behind bars.”
Director of Child Services in the Ministry of
Women Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, Mrs. Dada
Fadairo, who had overseen the case of the
children, told our correspondent to call back when
she was contacted for comment on the judgment,
but she did not pick subsequent calls.
There was no way of reaching the mother of the
abused children, Kemi, for comment. The woman
who has since remarried in Oyo Stat has
remained incommunicado since her children were
taken into custody by the state government.
Adetayo is to spend his sentence at the Kirikiri
Prisons.
