November 20, (THEWILL) – An embattled Nollywood actor, Baba Ijesha, has claimed that he was forced to sign a confessional statement in the case of sexual assault against him.
The film star has been in a legal tussle after he was accused of assaulting a 14-year-old minor when she was 7.
The actor is facing a six-count charge bordering on the indecent treatment of a child, sexual assault, attempted sexual assault by penetration, and sexual assault by penetration.
On Friday, Baba Ijesha spoke during his trial-within-trial at the Ikeja special offences court.
The judge, Oluwatoyin Taiwo, had ordered a trial-within-trial for the actor after Babatunde Ogala (SAN), his lead counsel, objected to the admissibility of the confessional statement as evidence against his client.
Ogala had opposed the statement being admitted as evidence against the defendant because it was not willingly done by his client.
The lawyer had thereafter pleaded with the court to allow a trial-within-trial for Baba Ijesha to determine the voluntariness of the document — a request approved by the judge.
In the session, the actor stated that he signed the statement under duress.
The 48-year-old also claimed that he was beaten with a stick, forced to sit on the floor before he signed the statement.
Baba Ijesha also alleged that the Comedian Princess was the one who gave the police everything in the statement and he only signed the document after he was forced to do so.
The actor who was led in evidence by Dada Awosika, his counsel, said “my cloth was torn; I was forced to sit on the ground. My body was shaking”.
“They showed me the statement; I did not volunteer the statement. I was just asked to sign it. Princess dictated everything to them.”
Reacting, Oname Abigail, police inspector, dismissed the actor’s claim.
Abigail stated that the actor acknowledged that he understood the content of the statement before he signed.
“The defendant was shaking when I was about to take his statement. I offered him a chair to sit in to relax him but he said he preferred sitting on the floor to enable him to stretch out his legs,” she said.
“I calmed him down and told him he has to write his statement. I asked him questions in English and he responded to all of them in English. He requested that I help him to write his statement as he could not write because he was shaking.
“When we finished, I read the statement to him and he told me he understood everything after which he signed the statement.”
