Nollywood actor Olanrewaju James, alias Baba Ijesha, on Tuesday urged the Court docket of Attraction to put aside the judgement of a Lagos State Sexual Offences and Home Violence Court docket, which jailed him for 5 years for sexually assaulting a minor.
Baba Ijesha, in his discover of enchantment marked CA/LAG/CR/544/23, requested the appellate court docket to declare that his conviction and sentence had been executed in error by the decrease court docket.
Already, the three-person panel of the Court docket of Attraction led by Justice Folasade Ojo had reserved the enchantment for judgment after listening to the arguments of the appellant and the respondent.
Different members of the panel are Justice Abdullahi Bayero and Justice Paul Bassi.
Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo (now retired) had, on July 14, 2022, sentenced Baba Ijesha to 5 years imprisonment for sexually assaulting a minor.
The trial decide had sentenced the convict after he was discovered responsible of 4 counts out of a six-count cost introduced towards him by the Lagos State authorities.
The state had, by means of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Dr Babajide Martins, accused the convict of indecent remedy of a kid, sexual assault, tried sexual assault by penetration and sexual assault by penetration towards the defendant.
Whereas delivering judgment, Justice Taiwo held that the state did not show counts one and 6 of the cost.
He was acquitted of the offence of sexual assault by penetration, which offers with allegedly sexually assaulting the minor by penetration along with his automotive key seven years in the past and tried sexual assault by penetration throughout one other encounter with the minor in April 2021.
However the decide discovered him responsible and convicted him of indecent remedy of a kid and sexual assault of a minor between 2013 and 2014.
However dissatisfied with the decision, Baba Ijesha, by means of his counsel, Mr Kayode Olabiran, argued that the prosecution couldn’t show that the convict sexually assaulted the sufferer.
Olabiran stated, “The cost itself is centred on the defilement of a minor, however the prosecution couldn’t show the age of the sufferer.
“The Appellant was arrange. The Appellant is an actor. He acted in a script that he was invited to behave by his colleague (PW1), Damilola Adekoya.
“(PW1) Damilola Adekoya requested the Appellant to return and act a script. Within the assertion of PW1, at Panti Police Station, unknowingly to the appellant, there was a CCTV within the sitting room.
“No matter we watched in that film was a script by the producer, and the prosecution tendered the video of the scene of the performing.
“Based mostly on his confessional assertion, as on the day of the arrest, he was beneath duress, and there have been so many individuals who had been beating him that was when he confessed to the offence,” he stated.
Olabiran, nevertheless, urged the court docket to permit the enchantment and put aside the judgment of the decrease court docket, delivered on July 14, 2022.
The DPP, responding, urged the court docket to dismiss the enchantment, saying it lacked benefit and described it as a false impression.
Martin additionally urged the court docket to affirm the judgment of the decrease court docket delivered on July 14, 2022, which convicted Baba Ijesha of indecent remedy of a kid and sexual assault.
On the age of the sufferer, Martin submitted that the sufferer stated she was born on October 6, 2006, which places her age at 14, in 2013, when the offence was dedicated.
“On the time she gave proof in 2021, she was 17 years previous, which nonetheless makes her a toddler,” the lawyer said.