An Ibusa Magistrate Court has sentenced a 65 year old trader, Raphael Azubuike to 12 months imprisonment for indecent assault of a 12 year old girl.
The Court presided over by Chief Magistrate Onyekwe Nnamdi of Ibusa Magisterial District found the accused guilty of the one count charge of unlawful and indecent assault of the 12 Year old girl (name withheld) punishable under Section 360 of the Criminal Code Law Cap C21 Volume 1, Laws of Delta State 2006 and was sentenced to one year imprisonment. He was however given an option of fine of N50, 000 which he could not perfect as he was taken to prison custody by prison officials.
The convict popularly known as AZ who was on bail at the time the court delivered its judgment, sells a provision store at Ibusa where he was reported to have carried the 12 year old girl on his leg and inserted his finger inside her private part when the girl visited his provision store to buy an item for her father. He was caught in the act by the Landlords wife who had entered the shop unnoticed who raised an alarm. The incidence happened on the 28th day of January, 2013.
“This is making three times that AZ has been using me in that same store. Anytime he sees me, he would ask me to sit on his laps and starts inserting his fingers on my private part. He will later warn me not to tell anybody” the 12 years old primary 5 pupil of Umueze Primary School, Ibusa recounted.
The Chief Magistrate while delivering his judgment strongly condemned the reprehensible behavior of the accused saying that there was overwhelming evidence from the account of the victim and 4 other witnesses called by prosecution that the accused committed the offence as charged though he denied the charge during trial alleging a set up by his landlord and his wife
