The Court of Appeal in Lagos State has overturned the conviction and life imprisonment sentence of a visually impaired man, Suleiman Mohammed, who was previously found guilty of alleged sexual assault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mohammed was initially arraigned before Justice R. A. Oshodi of the Lagos State High Court on a two-count charge involving indecent treatment of a child and sexual assault by penetration, offences under Sections 135 and 261 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015. He pleaded not guilty to all charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the trial, the prosecution presented two witnesses\u2014the alleged victim and her mother\u2014and also submitted several exhibits. The defendant testified in his own defence. However, in a judgment delivered on November 21, 2023, the trial court convicted him, sentencing him to seven years imprisonment on one count and life imprisonment on the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dissatisfied with the ruling, Mohammed appealed the decision through his lawyer, Amaka Itegboje, arguing that the judgment was a miscarriage of justice. The Court of Appeal agreed, with Justice Joseph Eyo Ekanem stating that the trial court\u2019s decision was not supported by credible evidence and lacked proper reasoning. The court emphasized that criminal convictions must be based on logical and admissible evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The appellate court therefore allowed the appeal, quashed the earlier judgment, and discharged and acquitted Mohammed. The decision was unanimously supported by the other justices on the panel, Justice Paul Ahmed Bassi and Justice Ngozika Uwazurunonye Okaisabor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Following the ruling, Mohammed\u2019s counsel described the judgment as a victory for justice and fairness, stressing the importance of protecting persons with disabilities within the justice system. She further called for stronger safeguards, improved legal representation, and greater adherence to fair hearing principles to ensure vulnerable individuals are not subjected to injustice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Court of Appeal in Lagos State has overturned the conviction and life imprisonment sentence of a visually impaired man, Suleiman Mohammed, who was previously found guilty of alleged sexual assault. Mohammed was initially arraigned before Justice R. A. Oshodi of the Lagos State High Court on a two-count charge involving indecent treatment of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":84764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-91409","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/court-of-Appeal1.jpg?fit=350%2C350&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91410,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91409\/revisions\/91410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dnllegalandstyle.com\/dnl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}