Baba Ijesha sentenced to 16 years in prison

Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo of the Ikeja Domestic Violence and Sexual Offences Court on Thursday, July 14, 2022, sentenced the disgraced actor to prison.

Delivering the judgement, Justice Taiwo said that the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of all the charges against him.

However, she found the defendant guilty of two of the six counts against him.

Baba Ijesha was detained on April 22, 2021, after the Lagos State Police Command announced his arrest for allegedly sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in the care of Princess.

Described as one of the most talked about celebrity court cases ever in Nigeria, several pieces of evidence were laid before the court on how the actor sexually assaulted the young child.

A forensic report was presented by a child forensic expert, Olabisi Ajayi-Kayode at the Special Offenses Court in Ikeja.

According to Ajayi-Kayode, the clinical report on the minor showed Baba Ijesha allegedly engaged the child in sexual activities when she was 7 on two occasions, and on one occasion inserted his car key into her vagina.

The Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions, which proffered the charges against the actor, argued that the offences contravene Section 135, 137, 261, 202, 262 and 263 of the Lagos State Criminal Law 2015, which stipulates life imprisonment for offenders.

Baba Ijesha pleaded not guilty to all the counts.