Traditional Healer Gets 14 Years For Sexual Assault Of Minor
Justice Rahman Oshodi of an Ikeja Special Offences and Domestic Violence Court has sentenced a traditional herbal healer, Segun Shina, to 14 years imprisonment for attempting to sexually assault a 10-year-old (name withheld) who was suffering from epilepsy.
The Lagos State Government initially arraigned the defendant on a charge of defilement on April 4, 2021. He pleaded not guilty to the charge.
During the proceedings of the court, the prosecutor, however, had approached the court on that the defendant, through his counsel, Mrs Rukayat Owolabi, had entered a plea bargain agreement which necessitated the amended charge to attempted sexual assault by penetration.
The amended charge was red to Shina and he pleaded guilty it.
Justice Rahman Oshodi said the evidence before the court, the medical report, and the voluntary guilty plea proved that Shina committed the offence.
Oshodi thereafter convicted Shina as charged. The judge said in his judgment that he was satisfied that the convict duly understood the nature of the plea bargain and his counsel had explained it to him.
He said: “Segun Shina, you have pleaded guilty to attempted sexual assault by penetration of a 10-year-old girl suffering from epilepsy.
“I must emphasised that the charge you were earlier charged carries life imprisonment.
“You exploited the child seeking help for epilepsy and you also betrayed the trust placed on you as a traditional herbal healer.
“I have considered your plea for mercy, your lawyer’s allocutus, submission of the prosecutor and I hereby sentence you to 14 years jail term.”
Oshodi said the the sentence should commence from November 16, 2028, the day of his arrest.
The court also ordered the family of the convict to ensure his rehabilitation upon release.
“You shall have no direct or indirect contact with the family of the survivor and your name shall be registered as a sex offender under the law,” the judge said.
Delivering the judgement in this matter, the judge told the court that the prosecutor had called two witnesses; the survivor’s mother and an investigative police officer through whom compelling evidences and exhibits were tendered into evidence.
The survivor’s mother, had in her evidence told the court that the survivor was suffering from epilepsy and she had taken her to the defendant for healing.
“He gave my daughter something to drink and she vomited.
“He later told me that my daughter will have to stay for a few days with him to perfect her healing but she later got back home and said that Shina had sex with her,” the mother of the survivor had said.
