By ADENIKE AYODELE and TITILOLA YEROKUN

An Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Tuesday sentenced a 22-year-old graduate, Femi Ayoade, to life imprisonment for defiling a four-year-old girl inside a tricycle.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Justice Abiola Soladoye ruled that the prosecution had proven the one-count charge of defilement against Ayoade beyond reasonable doubt.

Soladoye described Ayoade as a “criminally audacious man who turned a child’s vagina into a playground.”

“It is indeed a shameless act.

“The prosecution has successfully presented compelling evidence against the defendant.

“Consequently, the defendant is hereby found guilty of the charge of defilement and is sentenced to life imprisonment,” she held.

The judge further ordered that the convict’s name be entered into the Lagos State Sexual Offences Register.

NAN reports that the State Counsel, Mrs Olufunke Alebiosu, presented two witnesses during the trial, the survivor and her father, while the convict testified as the sole witness for the defence.

The prosecution had submitted that the convict committed the offence in September 2021, at about 11.10 a.m., at No. 19, Milestone Close, Infinity Estate, Skido Bus Stop, Eti-Osa, Lagos.

According to the prosecutor, the offence contravenes Section 137 of the Criminal Law, Chapter C17, Volume 3, Laws of Lagos State, 2015. (NAN)