A Lagos Magistrate’s Court, Yaba, on Wednesday, set free a 15-year-old girl (name withheld) accused of killing her father’s 51-year-old friend, Babatunde Ishola, who attempted to rape her.
Lagos State Director of Public Prosecution had earlier advised the court that the “case lacked ingredients of murder.”
In her judgement, the presiding Magistrate, Mr Philip Ojo, said there were insufficient facts to establish a prima facie case of murder against the suspect, contrary to Section 222 of the Criminal Law, Cap. C17, Vol.3 Laws of Lagos State.
The accused teenager was represented by the Lagos State Office of the Public Defender since the matter began.
She was arraigned on a count of killing Babatunde Ishola on March 7, 2020, at Nwadolu Street, Aboru in Alimosho Local Government Area of the state by allegedly stabbing him to death with a knife.
She was thereafter remanded at the Correctional Home for Girls, Idi-Araba and case adjourned for legal advice of the Lagos State Director of Public Prosecutions.