Self-defense: 16-year-old Timilehin Taiwo, said she claims she stabbed her father’s friend,  Babatunde Ishola, 51, to death on Saturday because the victim attempted to rape her

Police in Lagos, Nigeria Tuesday, arraigned a 16-year-old girl before the Ebute Meta Magistrates’ Court for alleged murder.
Local newspaper PUNCH Metro reported that the teenager fatally stabbed her alleged assailant, Babatunde Ishola, 51, to death while he was trying to sexually assault her on March 7, 2020.
The alleged would-be rapist, who was a friend to the defendant’s father, had invited her to his house to assist him with fetching water when he allegedly attempted to rape her.
High school senior, Timilehin Taiwo,  16, claims she stabbed her father’s friend because the victim attempted to rape her.  She was arrested and held at the Oke Odo Police Station in Lagos.
At her arraignment the teenage suspect told the magistrate, “Mr Babatunde Ishola, is my father’s friend. He invited me to his house to assist him in fetching water, as he lives in the house alone. That was not the first time I was helping him with some house chores,” she said. Adding that she reached out and grabbed a knife from the room and stabbed the man she was helping with his chores when he tried to assault her.
Confirming the incident and arrest, police spokesperson, DSP Bala Elkana said: “on Saturday afternoon at about 3 pm, Policemen attached to Oke-Odo Police Station received an information that one Babatunde Ishola was stabbed to death by a 16-year-old girl.
Taiwo was arraigned on one count of murder before Magistrate A. O. Adedayo on Tuesday. She pled not guilty to the charge.
Following her plea, the magistrate ordered that the defendant be remanded in the Correctional Home for Girls, Idi-Araba, and adjourned the case till April 27, 2020, for the state Director of Public Prosecutions’ advice.
However, the state Office of the Public Defender, OPD, said it had taken up the case on behalf of the defendant, pro bono.
The Director of the OPD, Olayinka Adeyemi, said the office would provide free legal services to other defendants being prosecuted in various courts.
She stated, “The OPD will not only provide the suspect with free legal services, but also give her and other people being represented in courts in various cases qualitative legal representation, and our experience, knowledge and understanding of criminal laws of the land and principles will be used in handling all cases on behalf of our clients in courts until justice prevails,” Punch reports.
“I want to assure members of the public that no stone will be left unturned on the cases; all legal instruments in the arsenal of the OPD will be deployed to ensure that justice is not only done, but is seen to be done.”