Judge urges Lagos to establish victim protection agency

A Lagos State High Court judge, Justice Rahman Oshodi, has urged the state government to immediately constitute the Lagos State Victim Assistance and Witness Protection Agency, warning that the failure to establish the body has left victims of crime, particularly children subjected to sexual abuse, without adequate protection.

Justice Oshodi made the call in his judgment discharging and acquitting a 54-year-old man, Taiwo Oyelabi, who was charged with raping his 21-year-old biological daughter.

The judge said the agency, provided for under the Lagos State Victim Assistance and Witness Protection Law enacted by the Ninth Assembly and assented to by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in 2024, was necessary to give practical effect to the rights and protections guaranteed to victims and witnesses.

Justice Oshodi made the call in his judgment in the case of the State of Lagos v. Adio Serious, where he drew attention to the need for effective institutional support for victims and witnesses of crime.

The law provides for assistance, support and compensation for victims, as well as protection for witnesses against intimidation, reprisals and other forms of harm.

Justice Oshodi’s call came against the background of what he described as a disturbing pattern of alleged sexual abuse within families, which he said had repeatedly come before his court.

However, the judge observed that although the law had been enacted, the agency established to implement its provisions had yet to be constituted, leaving the intended protections largely unavailable in practice.

In the case before him, marked ID/8787C/2019, the defendant was accused of raping his daughter in November 2017 at their residence on Community Road, Obadore, Igando, Lagos.

However, the judge held that although the prosecution established that Oyelabi had sexual intercourse with his daughter, it failed to prove that the act occurred without her consent, an essential ingredient of the offence of rape.

Justice Oshodi faulted the prosecution for failing to call the alleged victim to testify, describing her as the only person who could directly tell the court whether she consented to the sexual intercourse.

“The prosecutrix was 21 years old. She was the only person who could tell the court whether she consented, and she was not called,” the judge said.

He added that the prosecution had failed to establish the absence of consent or prove that any consent was obtained through force, threat, fraud or deceit.

“The evidence shows that the defendant had sexual intercourse with his daughter. It does not show that he raped her,” Justice Oshodi held.

The judge said the prosecution called only one witness, an Assistant Superintendent of Police, Iyabo Bakare, who testified that the defendant admitted having sexual intercourse with his daughter.

Although the court accepted the police officer’s evidence of the defendant’s oral admission, it held that the admission did not establish that the sexual intercourse was non-consensual.

Justice Oshodi also rejected the defendant’s written confessional statement after a trial-within-trial, ruling that it was not recorded in compliance with Section 9(3) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State 2015.

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The provision requires such statements to be recorded in the presence of the suspect’s legal practitioner and a family member, or by video recording.

The judge further held that the police officer’s account of what the alleged victim and her twin sister told her during investigation amounted to hearsay and could not be used to prove the allegations.

He noted that although the officer said she observed that the alleged victim was pregnant, no medical evidence was tendered to confirm the pregnancy or establish its age. The medical report, said to have been transferred to the Gender Unit of the Lagos State Police Command, was also not produced before the court.

In explaining the decision, Justice Oshodi referred to the Court of Appeal judgment in Kabiru Oriyomi v. FRN (2023), which held that proof of sexual intercourse alone was insufficient to establish rape where the prosecution failed to prove the absence of consent.

He stressed that the prosecution must establish every ingredient of the offence beyond reasonable doubt.

“However grave the allegation, a defendant cannot be convicted on suspicion,” the judge said, citing the presumption of innocence guaranteed under Section 36(5) of the Constitution and the standard of proof prescribed by Section 135(1) of the Evidence Act 2011.

Justice Oshodi expressed concern that Oyelabi had remained in custody for more than eight years following his arrest on April 16, 2018, while the prosecution called only one witness.

“The record shows that the defendant has been in custody since his arrest on 16 April 2018. He has spent more than eight years awaiting the outcome of a trial in which the prosecution called a single witness,” he said.

“Such cases deserve better preparation, so that the available evidence is placed before the court and no defendant spends years in custody on a charge that cannot be proved.”

The judge commended the defence counsel, Onome Akpeneye, for representing Oyelabi pro bono since his arraignment before the court on December 9, 2021.

The judgment also revisited six other cases involving allegations of sexual abuse within families that came before the court between October and December 2025.

They included the conviction of Michael Segun Odumabo, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for defilement; Godwin Udo Akpan, who received 14 years’ imprisonment for attempted sexual assault by penetration; and Sola Lawson, who was sentenced to seven years for indecent treatment of a child.

In other cases, defendants were discharged or acquitted, while one case was struck out for want of diligent prosecution.

Justice Oshodi said the cases reflected a “deeply disturbing pattern of alleged sexual violence within the family setting”.

He subsequently found Oyelabi not guilty of rape under Section 260 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2015 and discharged and acquitted him.