The Court of Appeal sitting in Lagos has discharged and acquitted Dr. Olufemi Olaleye, Medical Director of Optimal Cancer Care Foundation, of the offence of defilement of his wife’s niece.
Dr. Olaleye had been accused of raping his wife’s teenage niece and was sentenced to life imprisonment by an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court.
The trial judge had found the case presented by the prosecution as compelling.
Dr. Olaleye had appealed his conviction, seeking an order from the appellate court to overturn his life sentence for defilement and sexual assault by penetration of a minor.
However, Justice Jimi Bada of the Court of Appeal, Lagos Division, who read the lead judgment held that the trial court erred in convicting Dr. Olaleye based on “tainted” and ‘unreliable’ evidence of his estranged wife, Oluremi, and the alleged survivor (names withheld).
The appellate court said there were material contradictions in the evidence gathered by the prosecution which shouldn’t have been relied on by the lower court.
Details shortly…
