A Chief Magistrate Court In Port Harcourt has discharged and acquitted a lecturer of the Rivers University, Professor David Ogbonna, of charges of alleged unlawful and indecent sexual assault against a female student.
The court, which was presided over by Chief Magistrate Poromon Menenen, discharged and acquitted Professor Ogbonna alleged unlawful and indecent assault on a female student with sex on the University campus because the prosecution team failed to prove their case.
In his judgement, the Chief Magistrate held that the phone the female student claimed she used to record Professor Ogbonna’s discussion with her on the day of the alleged incident was never tendered as an exhibit during the trial.
Read Also: Alleged Sexual Assault: Rivers State University Suspends Prof. Ogbonna
It also stated that the disc the female student claimed she transferred the recording to was not also tendered during the trial.
The Magistrate stated that the underwear the female student claimed had a semen stain after she was allegedly unlawfully assaulted was not subjected to a forensic examination.
The prosecution team failed to call the Health Worker who conducted a medical examination on the female student to come and testify.
Magistrate Menenen said the prosecution team also failed to provide Chidinma to testify about who the female student claimed left her and the Professor in the lecturer’s office after both came to his office.
He maintained that there was no substantial evidence to prove the case of unlawful and indecent assault against Professor David Ogbonna and subsequently discharged and acquitted him
State prosecuting counsel, G.U. Amana, who represented the Rivers State Ministry of Justice in the matter, declined to speak to Journalists outside court after the judgement.
Emma Okah Esq, one of the defence counsels memeber of the accused, Professor David Ogbonna, in an interview with journalists outside the court, said the defence team knew the case would go the way it went because there was no evidence from day one.
Okah asserted that Professor Ogbonna has been innocent and will continue to be innocent from the beginning.
Recall that on June 28, 2022, the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), PortHarcourt, had arraigned Professor David Ogbonna of Rivers State University on one count charge of unlawful and indecent assault against a twenty-one-year female student of the institution.
The accused at the time pleaded not guilty to the charge.
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