The appellate court identified numerous material contradictions in the evidence presented by the prosecution, which the lower court should not have relied upon.
By Ife Osemedua
365Daily – The Lagos Division of the Court of Appeal has discharged and acquitted the Medical Director of Optimal Cancer Care Foundation, Dr Olufemi Olaleye, who was accused of defiling his wife’s niece.
In a lead judgment delivered by Justice Jimi Olukayode Bada on Friday, November 23, 2024, the Appeal Court also nullified the life sentence imposed on the 58-year-old by Justice Rahman Oshodi of the Lagos State Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court.
The appeal panel, Justice comprising Justices Olukayode, Abdu Dogo and Mohammed Abubakar, held that there were material contradictions in the evidence gathered by the prosecution, which should not have been relied on by the lower court.
Justice Oshodi in his judgment delivered on October 24, 2023, declared that the evidence adduced before the court against the defendant was compelling and proven beyond reasonable doubt.
He noted that the confessional statement of the defendant, which he made before his lawyer, Olalekan Buruji and the DPO of Anthony Police Station, that he regretted his act, proved that he committed the offences.
He, therefore, pronounced him guilty of the two-count charge of defilement of a child and sexual assault by penetration brought against him by the Lagos State government.
However, in its ruling, Justice Bada stated that the trial court had erred in convicting Dr. Olaleye based on the “tainted” and “unreliable” testimony of his estranged wife, Oluremi, and the alleged victim (name withheld).
The appellate court identified numerous material contradictions in the evidence presented by the prosecution, which the lower court should not have relied upon.
It also criticised aspects of the testimony from a child forensic specialist, a medical doctor from the Mirabel Centre, and the investigating officer, deeming their evidence “worthless.”
The court further held that the trial judge compromised the integrity of the proceedings by attempting to fill what it termed “the yawning gaps” in the prosecution’s case.
The Court of Appeal also questioned why the prosecution did not present important witnesses, including two family members who supposedly heard the appellant’s alleged confession.
The Justices pointed out that a trial within a trial should have been conducted to assess the voluntariness of Dr Olaleye’s confessional statements since he was in police custody, and he claimed they were made under duress after six days of detention.