Sales rep jailed seven years for abduction of employer’s niece

Justice Abiola Soladoye of the Lagos State Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court, Ikeja, on Monday, sentenced a sales representative, Chiwendu Owuasoanya, to seven years in prison for abducting her employer’s 12-year-old niece.

The judge in her ruling, held that the prosecution had proved all the elements of child abduction against Owuasoanya.

Soladoye stressed that the evidence of the prosecution witnesses was truthful and unshaken.

She described the convict as an irresponsible liar who abducted the girl on the third day of work and kept her away for nine days on the pretext that she did not want the girl to be maltreated by her aunt.

The judge said the nominal complainant and the investigative police officer who diligently investigated the matter were consistent and commended them for their evidence.

Justice Soladoye said: “The defendant was a new shop worker to the complainant and had only worked for three days.

“The defendant was deliberate and she admitted taking the child away.

“She is mean and reckless and allowed her employer to run from pillar to post looking for the child.

“The defendant is hereby found guilty as the three legs of the ingredients of abduction had been sufficiently proven by the prosecution.”

She sentenced Owuasoanya to seven years imprisonment following her conviction.

The state counsel, Mrs. Olufunke Adegoke, presented two witnesses, while the convict testified as a sole witness.

Adegoke submitted that the convict committed the offence in the Abule-Ado area of Lagos on June 11, 2022.

She said the convict fraudulently and unlawfully abducted the girl from the custody one Mrs. Ruth Dunu.

The offence, according to her, contravened Section 268 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.

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