Nigerian doctor given life sentence over rape case

A court in Nigeria has given a medical director a life sentence in prison for sexually assaulting his wife’s teenage niece.

Dr Olufemi Olaleye hurt the girl in a sexual way for a long time. His wife discovered this and told the police, according to the prosecutor.

The doctor said he did not do anything wrong when he went to court.

However, a judge in a Lagos court disagreed and believed that there was enough evidence against the doctor. The judge also refused to go easy on the doctor despite his plea for a more lenient punishment.

Olaleye appeared in court last November. He was accused of raping someone twice, once between December 2019 and July 2022. This happened when the girl came to live with their family.

During the trial, the doctor’s wife, Aderemi Olaleye, explained that she found out about the abuse when the girl informed her aunt and the family’s driver. The 18-year-old girl said the doctor had been having a sexual relationship with her and had said he would harm her if she told anyone, according to the doctor’s wife.

He was charged with making her watch sexual videos against her will.

In the trial, six people spoke: a girl, the defendant’s wife, a doctor, an expert in child care, and two police officers who investigated the case.

The doctor spoke in his own defense with the help of another doctor who disagreed with the evidence presented by the prosecution.

However, when giving the decision on Tuesday, Justice Rahman Oshodi stated that the proof shown in court strongly points to the defendant being responsible.

Justice Oshodi called the head of Optimal Cancer Care Foundation a “dangerous” criminal who did not show any regret.

The judge said that because Olaleye admitted to the police that he did the wrongdoing, it shows that he is guilty.

The judge didn’t agree with the doctor’s lawyers, who said the girl was taught by the defendant’s wife to lie about him, so she could take his property.

The judge said the defendant is guilty.

“He said that this charge means you have to go to jail for the rest of your life. ”

The doctor’s lawyer, Adebisi Oridate, asked the state to consider Olaleye’s work as a cancer doctor and that he had never committed a crime before, as he made a plea for a lighter punishment.

But the judge rejected the request and said that Olaleye must go to prison for a long time to show that Nigeria does not tolerate sexual violence.

He also told them to put the doctor’s name on the list of sex offenders in Lagos State.

We don’t know if the doctor will try to change the decision of the court.