Ekiti Woman Jailed 7 Years for Violent Attack on Lover After Dispute

(High Court. Photo Credit: Daily Nigeria)

Joy Ikoja, 35, was sentenced to seven years in prison by a High Court in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State, for causing harm to her lover's manhood, Ibrahim Usman, following a violent argument.

Ikoja was charged with bothering with an attempt to murder (Section 241) and causing serious hurt (Section 255) by the Ekiti State Ministry of Justice in 2021.

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The case, filed under Charge No: HAD/14C/2025, stemmed from an incident that occurred on April 12, 2025, at the Irona area of Ado-Ekiti.

According to court records, Ikoja and Ibrahim Usman had been living together as romantic partners in a single room for about three years, but trouble began after Ikoja, with Usman's consent, accommodated her female friend, Mayowa Ayomide, who was facing housing difficulties.

Investigations and testimonies revealed that the arrangement soon deteriorated into infidelity, as Mayowa and Usman allegedly began a secret sexual relationship under the same roof.

On the evening of April 12, 2025, between about 7:30pm and 8pm, Ikoja returned home to find the door locked from inside, and upon gaining entry, allegedly caught Usman and Mayowa together in bed.

Usman reportedly tried to shield Mayowa by pushing her aside and blocking Ikoja's path, but the situation turned viol£nt as Ikoja forcefully grabbed hold of Usman's private parts, causing a severe vertical lacer@tion to his scrotal sac that exposed his testes.

Usman was rushed to the Police Cottage Hospital in Okesa, Ado-Ekiti, later that night, and although the wound was initially sutured, it later became infected, exposing dead tissue and necessitating a referral to the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital for specialist urological care.

The prosecutor, F.O. Awoniyi, called four witnesses, including police investigators and the attending medical doctor, and tendered five exhibits, among them photographic evidence, a certificate of compliance, the defendant's confessional statement and the medical report.

The defendant, represented by Legal Aid Council counsel Adeyinka Opaleke, pleaded not guilty and later resiled from her extra-judicial confessional statement, claiming she never made any statement at the police station and that she only fought briefly without injuring Usman.

In her judgment, Hon. Justice Oyinkansola Oluboyede acquitted Ikoja of attempted murd£r, holding that the prosecution failed to establish premeditated intent to k!ll or the use of a lethal weapon, but ruled that the evidence overwhelmingly supported a charge of grievous harm.

The judge dismissed the defendant's denial as an afterthought, noting that her extra-judicial confession, corroborated by medical evidence and police testimony, firmly established her culpability.

Justice Oluboyede decried the rise of domestic vi0lence driven by uncontrolled emotion and passion, stressing that vi0lence can never be justified.

She sentenced Joy Ikoja to seven years' imprisonment, the maximum punishment prescribed under Section 255 of the Criminal Law of Ekiti State, 2021, excluding time already spent in detention.

Before pronouncing sentence, the judge remarked that the facts of the case were clear and the evidence of the defendant's guilt quite direct, adding that rather than helping the defendant attempt to wriggle out of an offence.

She clearly committed, defence counsel should instead have pursued a plea deal with the prosecution, which she said would have lowered legal fees, reduced jail time, secured a faster and more certain resolution, and potentially resulted in reduced charges and a lighter sentence.

She noted that such an approach would also have protected the victim's privacy by avoiding a lengthy trial altogether.

She acknowledged that the defendant's actions were largely borne out of uncontrolled emotion and passion against her intimate partner, but stressed that this offered no justification for vi0lence, adding that the sentence should serve as a deterrent to any other aggressive partners or would-be aggressive partners.

She then imposed the maximum punishment prescribed under the Criminal Law of Ekiti State, 2021, for the offence of grievous harm, seven years' imprisonment, excluding time already served in detention.