Emmanuel Okorie, a driver who allegedly defiled his neighbour’s 15-year-old sister, has denied the allegation levelled against him by Lagos State Government.
The defendant, who is standing trial on a count charge before a Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere yesterday, told the court that he did not defile the teenager.
Okorie, who was testifying before Justice Oluwatoyin Ipaye on trial-within-trial, said:
“I put my hand in her vagina and when I noticed that she was a virgin, I let her go. I didn’t sleep with her, because I didn’t want to injure her.”.
He said the incident occurred at his elder sister’s house in Ejigbo area of Lagos. The defendant, who was led in trial-within-trial by his counsel, Mr. Worer Obuagbaka, also said that he neither made any confessional statement nor told his investigative police officer, IPO, that he had sex with the victim.
Emmanuel said :
“This statement you are seeing was not written by me. I was not given any paper to write. I was inside the cell when a man nicked named Sean Paul came and brought me out to where the IPO was. “
The next thing he did was to slap me and then I saw Inspector Amina Adeoye with an envelope and I was asked to sign.
“When I asked to read the statement, Sean Paul hit me on my forehead and I started bleeding. I did not read the statement, I signed under duress.”
Prosecutor Earlier, Lagos State prosecutor, Mr. Akin George, had called the third prosecution witness, Inspector Amina Adeoye, who narrated how she recorded the defendant’s statement. She said:
“On December 1, 2015, a case of defilement was transferred from Ejigbo Police Station to State Criminal Intelligence Investigation Department SCIID, Panti, Yaba, and the victim that was defiled was 15 years old then.
“After the case was transferred, I took the statement of the victim. Thereafter, I cautioned the defendant in English Language, then recorded his statement. “.
After the defendant’s statement had been taken, we had to refer the victim to Mirabel Centre at Lagos University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, where she was treated and the report was sent to our office.”
She also told the court that she read the statement Okorie made at Ejigbo, where he denied committing the offence, adding that she did not force him to sign the statement.
According to her, “he wrote the statement that the girl and her friend were actually coming back from school when the incident occurred.”