Lagos doctor jailed for life over r*pe of minor goes to Appeal Court, gives 35 reasons he should be set free

A Lagos-based medical doctor, Olufemi Olaleye, who was sentenced to life imprisonment for defiling his wife’s niece has filed a suit asking the Court of Appeal to quash his conviction by the lower court.

Olaleye, the Medical Director of Optimal Cancer Care Foundation, who was convicted and given a life jail term by Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on October 24, in a notice of appeal filed by his lawyer, Dr Kemi Pinheiro (SAN), said that the lower court was wrong to have relied on the evidence presented by the prosecution against him.

In the appeal dated and filed on November 24, at the Lagos Division of the Appeal Court, the appellant gave 35 grounds why his appeal should be allowed.

In the copy of the notice of appeal made available to newsmen in Abuja on Wednesday, Pinheiro argued that the lower court erred in law when, in the absence of any direct evidence, held that the alleged victim of the crime was a child of 16 at the time of the offence.

The senior advocate said the prosecution did not tender any documentary evidence in support of its case that the alleged victim of the crime was 16 years.

The lawyer further argued that the prosecution had the duty of presenting the birth certificate of the complainant which would have served as conclusive proof of her age but had failed to do same.

Pinheiro also alleged that the victim never accused his client of rape before the police who interviewed her when the alleged events were still very fresh in her mind, only for her to turn around four months after the alleged incident occurred to claim Olaleye raped her.

According to the filing, the court ought to have been suspicious of the time frame between her statements to the police and the Gender Department of the police.

He went on to add that since the video recording played in open court showed the alleged victim denying in clear terms that the appellant never released semen in her mouth, the court ought to have found that her subsequent allegation of rape was not only contradictory of her statement to the police but a rehearsed story aimed at nailing the appellant at all cost.

“Firstly, PW1 (the appellant’s wife & complainant) not being present when the appellant allegedly had sexual intercourse with the alleged survivor could not have corroborated the evidence of the alleged survivor because corroborative evidence ought to come from a person who directly witnessed the events as they occurred,” Pinheiro said.

“Secondly, any corroborative evidence ought to come from an independent source. Having demonstrated during trial that PW1 stood to benefit from the appellant’s conviction, it was wrong of the court to have relied on her tainted testimony in finding that her evidence corroborated that of the complainant,” the lawyer argued.

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