By ADENIKE AYODELE

A prosecution witness, Mercy Osondu, on Thursday told an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court how her stepmother, Chinyere Osondu allegedly inserted a stick into her six-year-old niece?s private part.

The defendant, Chinyere, is standing trial on a four-count charge bordering on sexual assault and grievous harm.

The witness, while being led in evidence by the State Counsel, Ms Inumidun Solarin, alleged that Chinyere inserted the stick into the six-year girl?s private part because she urinated on the bed.

The witness, a makeup artist narrated that she discovered the ugly incident when she traveled home in August 2021 for her father?s burial.

According to the witness, the victim whose father is based in Dubai, lived with the defendant at Iyana Ibiye, Morogbo in Lagos.

She said, ?My niece lived with my father and stepmother for three years but in 2021 my father died. I went home with my brother to receive those that came for condolence visits.

?There, I noticed that my niece had a big injury on her head. Flies were perching on it. I asked what happened, but she was reluctant to talk

?The second day, I went outside the compound and met our neighbour, she told me to take my niece away from my stepmother.

?I, therefore, persuaded my niece to tell me what happened to her. She told me my stepmother hit her head with a padlock because she urinated on the bed?.

The witness also said that it was when she took her niece to her house that she found out about the sexual assault.

She stated that her niece could not bend down to wash her private part.

The witness said: ?I took my niece to the bathroom to give her a bath, but she could not bend down.

?My niece told me that the defendant inserted a stick in her private part for urinating on the bed.

?My brother and I reported the case at the station, but the DPO locked my brother in the cell and ensured that we dropped the case.

?But when Ifeanyi, the father to the little girl heard about the case, he contracted an NGO, and the case was transferred to Panti?.

Under cross-examination, the witness confirmed that the little girl was her younger brother?s daughter.

She maintained that it was during her father?s burial that she noticed the injuries on her niece?s head.

The witness also said that her stepmother and her niece?s father were close and had a cordial relationship.

?I do not know if my brothers wanted to take the house from our stepmother because she did not have any male child,? she also answered.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the defendant had pleaded not guilty to the charge which contravened Sections 173, 261, 245 and 246 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

Justice Rahman Oshodi, after listening to the arguments, adjourned the case until Nov.5 for the continuation of trial. (NAN)

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