An Akure Magistrates’ Court has ordered a security guard, Joel Monday, to be remanded in prison for allegedly having sex with, making pregnant, and mistreating a 16-year-old girl.
The court heard that Monday, who works as a private security guard, broke the Child Rights Law of Ondo State. This law can give life in prison to people who harm children.
The young girl, whose name is not being shared to protect her, told the court that she left Cross River State and came to Akure hoping to find work to help her sick mother.
“I came to Akure because life was very hard for my family back home, and I wanted to assist my sick mother. My mother has five children and our father didn’t take care of us. So when a man called ‘White’ told me I could find better opportunities in Akure, I followed him,” she said.
She first worked as a housemaid for someone named Mr. David for one year. She was promised ₦180,000 as pay but only received ₦50,000.
“My mother had warned me not to stay longer than a year, but after being cheated, I couldn’t return home,” the girl explained.
After leaving her first job, the girl met Joel Monday who offered to help her find work and gave her a place to stay. But this is when her troubles began.
“He promised to get me a better job with higher pay, and since I had nowhere to stay, he offered to house me. That was when he started making sexual advances. I resisted several times, but he later started forcing himself on me. After every encounter, he would give me pregnancy prevention pills,” she told the court.
The teenager said Monday pretended to be a police officer and threatened that no police station would believe her story or arrest him if she reported what was happening.
According to the girl, she became pregnant in August last year. When Monday found out, he became violent.
“He called me a prostitute and said I was ruining his plans to marry his fiancée,” she said.
The young girl finally told a woman in her neighborhood about what was happening. This woman advised her not to have an abortion and took her to an organization called Emmanuel World Children’s Foundation. The foundation cared for her until she gave birth on April 30 this year.
Monday’s lawyer, A.I. Musa, did not deny that his client was the father of the baby. Instead, he asked the court to think about the welfare of the newborn baby and the teenage mother.
“My lord, this court is not just a court of law but also a court of justice and a court of children. One party is a minor and the other a baby,” Musa said. “The child’s welfare must be prioritized. Since the defendant earns ₦150,000 monthly, he is ready to cater for the mother and child.”
But the lawyer representing the girl argued that Monday should be punished to show others that such behavior is not acceptable.
“The minor is hardworking and not wayward, which is why she came to Akure to work in the first place. If the court fails to punish the defendant, it may send the wrong message that justice is no longer obtainable,” the lawyer told the court.
Magistrate Grace Alphonso ordered that the teenage girl and her baby should stay with Emmanuel World Children’s Foundation for now. The court will try to contact the girl’s family in Cross River State to see if her mother can take care of her.
The magistrate also ordered that copies of the case file should be sent to the Directorate of Public Prosecutions for advice, while the original papers will be kept at the State High Court.
The case will continue on July 31, 2025.
