A Lagos music teacher, Anthony Okeh, has been sentenced to life in prison for defiling a nine-year-old pupil.

Mr Okeh was handed the sentence on Wednesday. Before his arrest, arraignment, conviction and sentencing, he was a music teacher and counsellor at Lachez O International School in Agege.

The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency said in a statement on Thursday that the victim’s mother reported the case to the police.

“Justice Abiola Soladoye of the Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Wednesday, 21st May, 2025, convicted and sentenced a 35-year-old music teacher and counsellor of Lachez O International School, Anthony Okeh, to life imprisonment for defiling a nine-year-old pupil,” the LDSVA said.

State counsel Abimbola Abolade, during the trial, presented two witnesses, the survivor and the IPO and the defence called four witnesses.

Mr Okeh was reported to have committed the sex crime on September 6, 2022, at the school.

The prosecution informed the court that Mr Okeh had “unlawful sexual intercourse” with the minor by “penetrating her vagina with his penis”.

Describing Mr Okeh as a “pathological liar”, the judge said the defendant, by having unlawful sexual intercourse with his pupil, was “everything a teacher should not be” and was “a soulless man without any iota of shame”.

According to the judge, the prosecution was able to discharge the burden of proof of the charge of defilement against Mr Okeh, whose name will be registered in the Sexual Offenders Register of the Lagos government.

The court convicted Mr Okeh of a one-count charge of defilement.

The judge advised schools to recruit employees with high moral standards.

The LDSVA urged residents to keep breaking the culture of silence by reporting any case of Domestic or Sexual Violence through its toll-free line, 08000-333-333.