The Benue State High Court sitting in Makurdi, has discharged and acquitted the lecturer at the Benue State Polytechnic, Ugbokolo, Andrew Ogbuja, of all four count charges bordering on alleged rape and death of a 13-year-old school girl, Ochanya Ogbanje, in 2018.
In another development, the Federal High Court in Makurdi, in a separate case, convicted wife of the lecturer, Mrs Felicia Ochiga-Ogbuja, five months for negligence in the rape of the deceased girl.
Mr Ogbuja and his son, Victor, who is currently at large, are both maternal relations of the deceased, were accused of serially raping her until she fell ill with complications.
Ochanya was admitted at the Federal Medical Centre in Makurdi for two months before she subsequently died on October 17, 2018.
On October 10, 2019, the Benue State government arraigned Ogbuja before the Makurdi High Court on four counts of rape and Ochanya Ogbanje’s death.
Delivering judgment on the case, on Wednesday, the judge, Augustine Ityonyiman, cited inconsistencies in the evidence presented before the court and the inability of the prosecuting counsels to prove their cases beyond a reasonable doubt.
The first and second charges brought before the court against the accused were “Criminal Conspiracy to Commit Rape,” and “Rape.” In which he held that the statement admitted in court to have been recorded from the late Ochanya, when crosschecked with the statement of the accused does not prove that there was a conspiracy between father and son to rape the deceased.
He further stated that the incidences that the prosecution presented, where the daughter of the accused had caught her brother having sexual intercourse with late Ochanya, and a neighbour who also witnessed the sexual molestation by the accused, cannot be accepted as evidence because the said daughter or neighbour was not brought to testify before the court.
He also held that the absence of a hymen on her vagina which the prosecutor also pointed out without providing evidence linking it to an act of assault or rape by the accused, and the conflicting autopsy reports presented to the court “makes the charges of rape against the accused a mere conjecture.”
On the third and fourth judgments which were: “Criminal conspiracy to commit culpable homicide,” and “Culpable Homicide,” justice Ityonyima said the prosecutor could not establish that the accused persons’ action (s) resulted in the death of late Elizabeth Ochanya, as the defendant has presented to the court substantive hospital pieces of evidence of her sickness from 2013 till her demise.
Citing other judicial precedents and related laws he ruled: “in accordance to section 97 of the penal code, the prosecutor has not proven any case of conspiracy, and has not proved his case as required by law on the ground of the charges. I go ahead to discharge the accused of all charges.”
Meanwhile, in Mrs Ogbuja’s case which coincided with that of her husband, on Wednesday, the judge, Mobolaji Olajunwo, held that the defendant failed in her duty to protect Miss Ogbanje from “being sexually abused by her son, Victor.”
The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking In Persons, NAPTIP, had charged Mrs Ogbuja with negligence leading to the rape and death of Ochanya.
NAPTIP had accused Mrs Ogbuja of failing in her duty to protect the deceased teenager from “being raped” by her husband and son, Victor.
In her verdict, Mrs Olajunwo held that “Ochanya was being abused by the son of the defendant, but the “defendant who owed” the deceased girl” the duty of care to ensure that she was protected from such an act,” failed in doing so even when Mrs Ogbuja’s daughter, Winifred drew attention to the sexual assault.
The judge noted that Mrs Ogbuja “made it impossible for the NAPTIP investigating officer to see and interrogate” her daughter, Winifred, in the course of the investigation of the matter.
Agreeing with the prosecution, the judge said “the evidence that Ochanya told the defendant, Mrs Ogbuja, about what was going on, and was not successfully challenged,” proved NAPTIP’s case.
The Judge also held that Mrs Ogbuja failed to challenge the prosecution’s evidence that she “threatened to send Ochanya out of her house if she told anyone about the sexual abuse. This evidence has neither been challenged nor controverted.”
“The defendant failed to perform her duty as it concerned the wellbeing of Ochanya, particularly as it comes to her protection from been sexually abused.
Recalling the prosecution’s evidence, the judge said, “the fourth prosecution witness in his testimony, said Ochanya upon been presented for medical examination, complained of passing urine uncontrollably and had serious pain at the lower abdomen.”
“When Ochanya was examined, it was discovered that the membrane covering the vagina opening was not there, which is an indication that Ochanya had been disvirgined.”
“During examination it was discovered that Ochanya had urinated on her bed as she could not hold her bladder.
“The medical report further stated that a working diagnoses of the facal and urinary incontinence in a sexually abused child was made,” the court held.
Following Miss Ogbanje’s ordeal at the hands of the Ogbujas, the judge held that asides the physical injuries inflicted on the deceased, “the sexual abuse itself would have scarred her for life, and I so hold.”
The court held the prosecution had been able to prove all the ingredients contained in count one of the charge.
“I hold that the defendant is guilty as charged in respect of count one.
“I hold that the defendant is guilty as charged contrary to Section 314 of the Criminal Code and she is hereby convicted.”