Comic Actor, Baba Ijesha Bags 16 Years Jail Term

By Akinwale Kasali

After several months of legal battle, Nollywood Actor, Olanrewaju James, popularly known as Baba Ijesha has been sentenced to 16 years imprisonment by an Ikeja Special Offences Court, Lagos for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old Minor.

Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo, in a two-hour judgement on Thursday, July convicted Baba Ijesha of indecent treatment of a child, sexual assault and attempted sexual assault.

The Judge however, discharged and acquitted him of count one and count six, which were: sexual assault by penetration and attempted sexual assault by penetration.

The offences contravene Section 135, 137, 261, 202, 262 and 263 of the Lagos State Criminal Law 2015, which stipulates life imprisonment for offenders.

During the trial, a closed-circuit television, CCTV video recording detailing his relationship with the victim who is a minor was played in court.

Delivering the judgment, Justice Taiwo said that the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of all the charges against him.

However, the judge found the defendant guilty of two of the six counts against him.

Defense counsel, Dada Awosika (SAN), argued argued   in court that the footage of the CCTV was illegally obtained.

He had said, “In the interest of justice, exhibit A which was the CCTV footage that recalled the event was illegally obtained.

“The exhibit was not tendered by the maker. It was tendered by Princess, the complainant.”

He argued that the recording had been tampered with especially since the defendant did not go to the complainant’s house uninvited.

He further submitted that the alleged confessional statement of the defendant failed the provision of Section 9 (3 ) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law (ACJL) of Lagos State 2021.

“The Evidence Act allows legislation to guide the admissibility of the document before the court. ACJL has stated that if a confessional statement is to be used, it must meet some certain degree by ACJL which is not applied in this case.

“We urge the court to discredit the confessional statement. The defendant moved in a jiffy to participate in a short skit that put him in trouble. My Lord, my client was trapped.

“Concerning the age of the girl in question, Exhibits D and E are not saying the same thing.

“It is our submission, My Lord, that the court is bound to call the biological mother inside the box to tell us her real age or her birth certificate or scientific evidence is tendered to ascertain the age but none was done.

“The prosecution agreed that the age of the minor must be established.

However, it has also agreed that nothing has been done to provide the real age,” Awosika said.

The Director of DPP, Dr. Babajide Martins, in his final written address dated May 31, argued that the defendant is charged. He argued that the defense witness, Mr. Lawrence Ayeni, told the court that the CCTV recording could not be manipulated.

“On the issue of the CCTV recording My Lord, the first defense witness (Ayeni) told this honorable 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 sexual assault did not happen. These are the testimonies from the defense 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,” the DPP said.