On Monday, September 25, a Chief Magistrate Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers state, discharged and acquitted Professor David Ogbonna, a lecturer at Rivers State University, of allegations of unlawful and indecent sexual assault against a female student.
Professor David Ogbonna was charged with one count of unlawful and indecent assault against a twenty-one-year-old female student of the college on June 28, 2022, by the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID), Port Harcourt.
The Chief Magistrate ruled that the female student’s phone, which she claimed to have used to record Professor Ogbonna’s conversation with her on the alleged incident day, was never offered as an exhibit at the trial. Additionally, it was noted that the disc the female student claimed to have used to transfer the recording was not presented at the trial.
According to the magistrate, a forensic test of the female student’s underwear that she claimed showed a semen stain after she was allegedly assaulted unlawfully did not take place. The health worker who examined the female student medically but was not summoned to testify by the defense side.
The prosecution team, according to Magistrate Menenen, also failed to produce Chidinma, who the female student claimed was the one who left her and the Professor in the lecturer’s office after they had entered.
He argued that there was insufficient evidence to support Professor David Ogbonna’s claim of an unlawful and indecent assault, and as a result, he was released and found not guilty.