An Investigating Police Officer, Elizabeth Osikolu, on Monday, told an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court, how a housewife, Omolara Alashe, forced a 19-year-old girl (name withheld) to sleep with her husband, Ramoni Lateef, to bear children.
Osikolu, the second prosecution witness, who was led in evidence–in–chief by the state prosecuting counsel, B.T. Boye, leading Bukola Okeowo, narrated this to Justice Rahman Oshodi.
Alashe and Lateef, who are both first and second defendants respectively, are standing trial bordering on conspiracy, rape, sexual assault and stealing, preferred against them by the Lagos State Government.
The witness told the court that the incident happened in 2022 in their residence at Ketu where they relocated after their former house in Ojota was sold.
Osikolu told Justice Oshodi that the mother of the survivor died while they were living at Ojota and the couple offered to accommodate her.
The IPO said that while living with them, the survivor said the couple “always abused her physically whenever she made mistakes.”
She said at other times, “The first defendant would also wake her up at midnight and stripe her naked and the second defendant would have sexual intercourse with her without her consent.
“The first defendant (Omolara) wakes her up in the middle of the night, strips her naked while her husband sleeps with her (survivor).”
She said they were in the sitting room one day “when the first defendant suddenly started beating her up, stripped her naked and inserted her fingers in her vagina without her consent.
“After she was done, she threw out her belongings and seized her ATM card and MTN line and the salary she was making at the time to deny her access to her money”, adding that the last incident was on March 24, 2023.
The IPO further told the court that her investigation also revealed that the couple had a baby who died in October 2022.
She said since then, the first defendant had not been able to conceive again.
“So, they decided that instead of the second defendant getting married again, they would use the survivor to bear children for him.”
Under cross-examination by the defence counsel, Lekan Egberongbe, the IPO maintained that the survivor was not lying adding that the first defendant admitted it in her statement.
She told the court that if the survivor consented to the sexual assault, she would not have reported to the Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency, nor submitted herself to medical examination at Mirabel Centre.
The witness insisted that the survivor couldn’t resist the second defendant because she was intimidated by the first defendant.
However, after listening to the testimony of the IPO, Justice Oshodi adjourned the case to February 3, 2025, for continuation of trial.
Punch
