A Lagos High Court sitting in Ikeja has sentenced a 32-year-old carpenter, Onyekachi Agu, to seven years imprisonment, for bathing his ex-girlfriend and rival with acid.
The judgement was delivered by Justice Oyindamola Ogala on Wednesday after finding Agu guilty of a count of causing grievous bodily harm to Aishat Adefarati and Mansur Ahmed in 2020.
Ogala found the convict guilty of one-count charge brought against him by the Lagos State government and held that the prosecution proved the case against the defendant beyond reasonable doubt.
The judge also ruled that the prosecution’s case is premised on circumstantial evidence because the victims said they did not see the defendant’s face when he poured the corrosive substance through the window of the hotel as they were sleeping.
“Pouring corrosive substance on the victims was never contradicted by the defendant. The action of the defendant was considered as intentional,” the court upheld.
READ ALSO: Undergraduate drowns in swimming pool in Bayelsa
The court also established that the relationship between Adefarati and Agu ended because the convict was assaulting his ex-girlfriend.
When Agu was arraigned, the state prosecutor, Uju Uwangaze, told the court that he committed the offence on July 3, 2020, at Gangare Hotel, Mile 12, in Lagos.
She said Agu traced the victims to the hotel and poured acid on them.
According to the prosecutor, the offence contravened Section 245 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
The convict however pleaded not guilty to the charge against him.
In her judgment, Justice Ogala found the defendant guilty on the grounds of his confessional statement and sentenced him accordingly.
“The defendant is hereby sentenced to imprisonment of seven years with hard labour and the sentence is to run concurrently,” the judge ruled.