Trial Of Lekki Farmer Stalled

A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos Southwest Nigeria this morning further adjourned till 28 July the Criminal case filed against a 50-year farmer, Yesiru Onajobi alleged to have impregnated his daughter.

When the matter was mentioned this morning, the accused farmer who claimed to be an illiterate told the court registrar that he has not been able to secure the services of a counsel.

The prosecuting counsel, Mr. O. Ilori equally told the court that a friend of the accused farmer who initially stood as surety for him promised to secure the services of a legal practitioner.

But since the farmer had been taken to court, his surety friend had disappeared.

He said whenever he called him, he refused to pick his call.

The lawyer said Yesiru had been abandoned by friends and relations.

The presiding judge, Justice Pat Ajoku while adjourning the matter till 28 July, to enable the accused farmer to secure the services of a lawyer, said if by that date he could not secure the services of a lawyer he will be remanded in prison custody.

Yesiru Onajobi was arraigned before the court on 7 June, 2010 by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trade in persons.

In a two-count charge filed before the court, the prosecutor, Mr. Olurotimi Ilori, a senior legal officer of the agency, alleged that Yesiru Onajobi of Bobije in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos State on or 20 January, 2010 in Bobije, Ibeju-Lekki, seduced Kehinde Onajobi, 14, his daughter who was under his custody.

The prosecutor added that the offence is contrary to Section 13(1) of the Trafficking in Persons Prohibition Law Enforcement and Administration Act, 2003 as amended and punishable under the same Section of the Act.

Ilori, who led another lawyer from the agency, Nneka Ajei, told the court that the accused has not secured the services of a lawyer to defend him.

The court then said that his plea cannot be taken since he has no legal representation.

Justice Pat Ajoku had on 7 June adjourned the case till 27 June, 2010 to give the accused person the opportunity to secure the services of a lawyer. The judge ordered that he be remanded in the custody of the agency.

Kehinde Onajobi, the 14-year old girl who was impregnated by her father, has since given birth to a child.

—Akin Kuponiyi