The Lagos state government has filed a notice of appeal at the supreme court seeking to overturn the recent acquittal of Femi Olaleye, a medical doctor previously convicted of rape.
Olaleye, managing director of the Optimal Cancer Care Foundation, was sentenced to life imprisonment in October 2023 by the Lagos Special Offences and Domestic Violence Court for defiling a child and sexually assaulting the victim.
However, in November, a three-member panel at the Lagos court of appeal overturned the conviction, discharging and acquitting the doctor.
The appellate court ruled that the original judgment was flawed, describing the testimonies of Oluremi Olaleye, the defendant’s wife, and the alleged survivor as “tainted” and “unreliable”.
It further suggested that Oluremi was “motivated by greed and the desire to take over the appellant’s assets upon his incarceration”.
Olaleye was initially arraigned in November 2022 on charges of defilement of a child and sexual assault by penetration.
He was accused of sexually abusing his wife’s niece over a period of 20 months.
