A 15-year-old girl (name withheld) accused for killing her father’s friend, Babatunde Ishola, for attempting to rape her was on Wednesday freed by the Lagos Magistrates’ Court sitting in Yaba.
The teenager was released on the ground that the ‘case lacked ingredient of murder’ as advised by the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution.
She was arraigned on a one-count bordering on murder, an offence which was allegedly committed on March 7, 2020, at Nwadolu Street, Aboru in Alimosho Local Government Area of the state.
The charge said the girl killed the 51-year-old man by stabbing him to death with a knife.
She was thereafter remanded at the Correctional Home for Girls, Idi-Araba and case adjourned for legal advice of the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions.
The teenager was represented by the Lagos State Office of the Public Defender since the inception of the case.
Delivering judgment, Magistrate Philip Ojo said there were “insufficient facts to establish a prima facie case of murder against the suspect contrary to Section 222 of the Criminal Law, Cap. C17, Vol.3 Laws of Lagos State”.
Reacting to the judgment, the Director, Lagos Office of the Public Defender, Dr Babajide Martins, expressed satisfaction with the decision of the court while lauding “the professionalism, diligence, and timely advice of the Director of Public Prosecution on the matter, which made it possible for the girl to be released because no prima facie case was established against her”.
In a statement by the OPD, the parents of the teenager appreciated the Lagos State Government and OPD for coming to their “rescue with free legal services” as they “would have lost hope of getting access to justice considering their low-income status in a case of this nature”.