Olanrewaju James, alias Baba Ijesha, the embattled Nollywood actor has finally met his waterloo as an Ikeja Special Offences Court has finally convicted him of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old minor.
Africa Daily News, New York also reports that Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo, in a two-hour judgement on Thursday, convicted Baba Ijesha of indecent treatment of a child, sexual assault and attempted sexual assault
Taiwo, however, discharged and acquitted him of counts one and count six, which were sexual assault by penetration and attempted sexual assault by penetration. She said the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty of all the charges against him.
Read Also: Over 7,500 Sign Petition, Kick Against Baba Ijesha’s Release
Delivering judgement on the matter, Justice Taiwo sentenced the actor to 16 years imprisonment.
The offences according to the judge contravene Section 135, 137, 261, 202, 262 and 263 of the Lagos State Criminal Law 2015, which stipulates life imprisonment for offenders.
It had been previously reported that no fewer than 7,500 persons have signed a petition to prevent the release of popular Nollywood actor, Olanrewaju Omiyinka, better known as Baba Ijesha, for allegedly sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in the care of popular comedienne, Adekola Adekanya, otherwise called Princess.
The actor was also said to have first defiled the minor when she was seven and repeated same recently when she was 14-year-old.
The petition, which was started by the Aunt Landa’s Bethel Foundation, on behalf of the teenager’s foster mother, Princess, was titled, ‘Olanrewaju James Omiyinka must not be released in Nigeria for defiling a 7 years old girl’.
When visited on Monday morning, the petition portal domiciled on www.change.org had attracted over 7,600 signatories.
‘Truly he defiled her in my sitting room years ago when I went downstairs to lock the gate after my aunt who had come to console me on the collapse of my marriage and loss of baby (her other siblings had gone out to play at the end of the street). She said after cleaning certain liquid (we suspect was sperm and blood) from her bum and his body, he warned her not to tell anyone and that it was nothing,’ Princess said in the petition while seeking justice on the matter.
Baba Ijesha has been under fire since April 22, 2021, when the Lagos State Police Command announced his arrest for sexual assault.
