Justice Lekan Ogunmoye of Ekiti State High Court has sentenced a 45 year old Alabi Oluwafemi to fifteen years imprisonment for raping an eight year old minor in 1999.
The convict who was arraigned on 25/08/2023 on one count charge of rape contrary to and punishable under Section 358 of the Criminal Code, Cap 30, Laws of Ondo State of Nigeria, 1978.
According to the charge, Alabi Oluwafemi sometimes in year 1999 at Ikere Ekiti within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did rape an eight year old girl, at the time of committing the offence.
In his testimony before the court, the victim said, “the defendant was my teacher and our neighbour, he touches my breast each time he came to teach me at home, I did not understand anything about what he was doing until he raped me in our sitting room when my mother travelled to Lagos and left myself and my sister at home. He removed my cloth and used it to clean the blood and sperm and threw it away, I later ran to our neighbours weeping, they thought I was missing my mother but I did not tell them what happened.
“Thereafter, I dropped out of the school because I could no more concentrate on my studies, I was afraid anytime I see him in the class.He came across me on facebook sometime in year 2012, he sent me a friend request and I declined. In year 2023 again, he started disturbing me, I reported the matter to the law enforcement agents, I was advised to ignore him. Thereafter, he started sending disturbing and annoying videos and messages to me, referring to the past ugly incident, when I could no more bear it, I decided to take legal action against him”, she concluded.
To prove his case, the prosecutor, Kunle-Shina Adeyemo called two witnesses and tendered confessional statement of the defendant, flash drive of defendant’s conversations with nominal complainant, Petition and print out from screen shot of chats among others as exhibits.
The defendant spoke in his own defence through his lawyer, Ademola Adeyemi and called two witnesses.
In his judgment, Justice Lekan Ogunmoye said, the sexual intercourse with the victim could not have been consensual in that, she as an eight years old girl was a minor and lacked the capacity to consent to sexual intercourse.
The confessional statement of the defendant also showed without equivocation that the defendant indeed committed the offence.
This issue is resolved in favour of the prosecutor and the defendant is found guilty as charged.
One of the aims of sentencing is to serve as deterrent, the defendant is hereby sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment without option of fine.