How Bus Driver Defiled My Two-year-old Daughter - Mother Tells Court

 

The mother of a two-year-old girl, on Monday, narrated to a Lagos State Sexual Offences Court how her daughter was defiled by the driver of her school bus, Afeez Balogun.

The mother told the court that 27-year-old Balogun, who was the bus driver of the Holbrook School in the Gbagada area of Lagos, defiled her daughter on the school premises.

Balogun, who is facing one count of defilement, was alleged to have committed the offence in July 2018.

The offence was said to contravene Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

While being led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Fehinti Ogbemudia, the mother noted that the alleged defilement occurred in 2018 when the victim was two-year-old.

She said, “Balogun was the bus driver of my daughter’s former school, the Holbrook Schools, located in Gbagada. My daughter is currently three years and 11 months old and she is in a nursery school.

“On July 5, 2018, my daughter woke up to urinate around 12.30am and she was crying and saying, ‘My bum is paining me’. I tried to find out what the problem was and I took her to the bedroom and my husband and I asked her some questions and I asked her if anyone had hurt her private parts and she said yes.

“I went to the school the following morning with my daughter to inform the administrators about the development and all the male members of staff were brought out and my daughter was asked to identify who had hurt her and she identified Balogun by running straight to him and that was the first time she identified him.”

The mother added that she went to the Office of the Public Defender with her daughter and the case was assigned to an officer, who asked the victim who defiled her and she identified the suspect as the culprit.

“We were referred from the OPD to the Mirabel Centre, where some doctors examined her and identified bruises in her private parts and said there were signs of forced entry.

“Also, at the Gender Unit of the Ikeja Command of the Nigeria Police Force, my daughter, for the third time, positively identified Balogun in a police line-up. The defendant was also taken to the Pedro Police Station, where another line-up was conducted and my daughter again pointed at Balogun, making it four times that she identified him as the person who defiled her. That was when he was arrested.”

While being cross-examined by the defence counsel, Quddus Mumuni, the mother informed the court that the medical tests conducted on her daughter revealed that there were fresh and old bruises in her daughter’s private parts.

The presiding judge, Justice Abiola Soladoye, adjourned the case till November 20 for the continuation of the cross-examination of the witness.