- Increasing rate of child defilement, rape across Nigeria raises great concern
- Experts attribute this to drug intake, others
- Enugu-based Legal practitioner, Barr. Ogbe suggests life imprisonment for convicts
On Monday January 18, 2024, in Lagos state, one Rasheed Wasiu was sentenced to life in prison for defiling neighbour’s eleven-year-old daughter.
Rasheed was convicted and sentenced by an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Monday.
WITHIN NIGERIA gathered that Justice Rahman Oshodi, who handed down the judgment, held that the offence of defilement was serious and punishable by a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment.
He also railed against the convict penchant for falsehood and lack of contrition despite the irrefutable evidence against him, saying he continued to deny the offence.
According to the Judge while delivering judgement, “The evidence shows that you had sexual intercourse with an eleven-year-old girl and even at sentencing, you showed no remorse.
“She was your neighbour’s daughter and she was to your knowledge, a child but you grabbed her in the toilet, pushed her to the wall and had sexual intercourse with her in a beastly manner.
“This is unacceptable and you must be ashamed and punished according to the mandatory sentence.
“Therefore, the sentence I pass upon you is one of life imprisonment.”
Oshodi also said the convict’s name be registered in the Lagos State Sexual Offenders Register.
The judge further said there was consistent evidence that the survivor, Prosecution Witness Three (PW3), was 11 years old as of March 2018, when the events that led to this prosecution occurred.
The court held that the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the survivor was a child as of March 2018.
The judge said: “It is undisputed that the prosecutrix (PW3) and the defendant lived in the same house in Apapa, Lagos.
“The crime scene is the general toilet in the house, which is in the backyard and the IPO gave a satisfactory description of it.
“He stated that the bathroom was beside the toilet and they were both dark because there was no lighting in the backyard.
“The survivor explained that she went to the toilet because she was pressed when the defendant forcefully had sex with her.”
The State Counsel, led by Mr Babajide Boye, called four witnesses to establish its case against the convict, while the defence called three witnesses in a bid to deny the allegation.
The prosecution had tendered three documents as exhibits, namely; the extra-judicial statement of the survivor who testified as Prosecution Witness Three (PW3), the extra-judicial statement of the survivor’s father, who testified as Prosecution Witness Four (PW4), and the defendant’s extra-judicial statement who had testified as Defence Witness One (DW1).
According to the prosecution, the offence contravenes Section 137 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015
The following day on March 19, 2024, the police in Imo state, south-east Nigeria, said they have arrested three men who allegedly raped a 12-year-old girl in the state.
This is contained in a statement issued on Tuesday, March, 19, 2024 by the police spokesperson in the state, Henry Okoye,
According to Mr Okoye, an assistant superintendent of police, he identified the suspects as Joseph Onyema, 35, Uzoma Nwanoreze, 30, and Eberechukwu Nwosu, 43.
The police spokesperson equally said the three suspects were arrested after “painstaking and diligent investigations” into the incident.
WITHIN NIGERIA gathered that the PPRO did not, however, indicate when the incident and the arrest happened.
In any case, explaining how it happened, Mr Okoye said police investigation revealed that the suspects raped the survivor (name withheld) on different occasions which made her contract a sexually transmitted disease as well as develop serious virginal injuries.
The police spokesperson did not, however, indicate the disease contracted by the survivor.
According to him, the survivor, who is also a minor, was currently “receiving intense medical care” at an undisclosed hospital in the state.
Narrating further, he said that the suspects will be arraigned upon completion of an investigation, he said.
The Commissioner of Police in Imo State, Aboki Danjuma, has condemned the act and described it as “barbaric,” Mr Okoye said.
Mr Danjuma urged residents of the state to support the police in the onslaught against suspected rapists and other criminals in the state.
Recall also that on January 18, 2024 an Ikeja sexual offences and domestic violence court has sentenced a man, Hoya Abraham, to 14 years imprisonment for raping a 12-year-old girl in Lagos.
The 35-year-old suspect committed the offence at Mowo Kekere Elepe in Ikorodu area of Lagos in July 2019.
The offense contravenes section 262 of the criminal law of Lagos state, 2015.
When the defendant was arraigned on August 8, 2021, he pleaded not guilty to the charge of defilement.
However, he recently opted for a plea bargain and was arraigned on amended charges.
In his judgment on that Thursday, Rahman Oshodi, the presiding judge, said he was pleased that the defendant was aware of the nature of the agreement and the gravity of the charge against him.
Oshodi said the survivor’s testimony was corroborated by the confessional statement of the defendant.
According to the Judge, “Her evidence was corroborated by the confessional statement of Abraham to have committed the offence,” the judge was quoted as saying.
“The victim in her testimony said that the defendant asked her to come over to his house to fry eggs for him and he ended up having sex with her which resulted in bleeding.
“However, when the case was called today, the prosecution informed the court that that defendant had opted for a plea bargain and he was re-arraigned on an amended information dated January 18.”
Oshodi said the prosecution was able to establish an attempted sexual assault by penetration in the evidence presented before the court.
“I hereby find the defendant guilty as charged,” he added.
“However, I have considered the plea bargain that you signed and the allocutus from your counsel.
“I hereby sentence you to 14 years’ imprisonment which will start from the day of your remand.”
The judge ordered that the name of the suspect be published in the Lagos State sexual offenses register.
In recent times, there has been astronomic increase in the child defilement, rape and other sexual offences across the country.
There is already an existing legislation against such illicit act in the country, though the implementation remains much to be desired.
WITHIN NIGERIA findings showed that in 2015, the Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, which outlawed all forms of violence against women and girls, including rape, female circumcision and forceful ejection was enacted.
Our investigations also showed that offenders, on conviction, face life imprisonment or a maximum of 14-year jail term, depending on the age of the offender and the type of violence committed.
Several persons have been convicted by various courts for rape and defilement in the case of minors.
For instance, an Ado-Ekiti High Court, in July 2022, sentenced a 49-year-old man, Dele Adeyanju, to four years imprisonment for raping an 11-year-old girl.
Two years after the enactement of the Act, a Bauchi High Court, in 2017, sentenced two middle-aged men to life in prison for raping a 40-year-old woman and plucking her eyes.
Despite strict implementation of the law against such unlawful act, the situation has not ameliorated as the sexual offences and domestic violence court in Lagos on Thursday March 14, 2024 sentenced one Nurudeen Nasiru to life imprisonment for raping a 13-year-old girl.
Nasiru was said to have raped his neighbour’s daughter after introducing the survivor to pornographic video in February 2021.
During the trial, the prosecution presented three witnesses — a social worker, the survivor and her father.
The confessional statement of Nasiru was tendered as an exhibit by the prosecution.
The defendant was the sole witness called by the defence team.
In her ruling on Thursday, Abiola Soladoye, the trial judge, held that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt the two-count of defilement and indecent treatment of a child brought against the defendant.
Soladoye ruled that the defendant introduced the survivor to pornographic videos and sexually assaulted her through the anus.
“The defendant was a neighbour who goes to the room of the survivor and opens his phone to show her pornographic videos,” the judge said.
“Afterwards, he will force her to practice what he had shown her on his phone.
“The defendant, in his confessional statement, admitted to having intercourse with the survivor.
“On count one of sexual assault by penetration, the defendant is sentenced to life imprisonment..
“On count two of indecent treatment of a child, the defendant is sentenced to seven years imprisonment.
“The sentencing should run concurrently and his name is to be entered in the Sexual Offenders Register maintained by Lagos State Government.”
The sexual misconduct was also not limited to one geographical zone of the country. It is a national issue that requires an urgent attention.
It should also recalled that on January 24, 2024, a Magistrate Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State convicted and sentenced one Anayor Ugo to seven years imprisonment without an option of fine for defiling and impregnating a 12-year-old girl.
According to the Court, the convict, a generator mechanic, had in 2021 visited the home of the underage girl in Oyigbo, Oyigbo Local Government Area of the state to carry out repairs on their power generator at the instance of the victim’s father.
But he ended up defiling the underage girl, an action which also put her in the family way and threatened to kill the girl if she told anyone about the incident and reportedly fled.
However months later, when the girl’s mother started noticing changes in her daughter, she confronted her and the girl opened up and the matter was reported to the police who began hunting for the suspect.:00 / 0:00
The operatives arrested Ugo on January 7, 2022, and charged the matter to court.
WITHIN NIGERIA gathered that although Ugo had during the trial admitted having carnal knowledge of the girl, he denied ejaculating, saying it was the latter that held him when he went to repair their generator and dragged him inside her room before he had carnal knowledge of her.
The trial Chief Magistrate, Rita Ogugua, in her judgment, said the prosecution was able to prove their case of defilement and having carnal knowledge of the underage girl through evidence and admission by Ugo, who is in his early 50s.
By and large, On January 11, 2024, A 55-year-old Niger State man, Yau Ibrahim, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for raping a 6-year-old girl in the Angwa- Daji area of Minna, the state capital.
Apart from raping the minor on August 23, 2023, the convict also infected the victim with “incurable venereal disease.”
A Senior Magistrate, Hafsat Abdullahi Bawa Wuse, who handed down the judgment last Tuesday, rejected the plea for leniency by the convict, “because of the magnitude of the offence, as he deserves no leniency from the court.”
She also attributed the judgment to “the victim’s health status as confessed by the convict contained in the medical report, and the stigma the victim will carry for life as a result of the action.
“The court hereby sentence you Yau Ibrahim to imprisonment for life for the offence of unlawful sexual intercourse with a child punishable under Section 26 (2) of the Child Right Law 2021 as amended.”
The police had arraigned the convict for having sexual intercourse with a 6-year-old girl and infecting her with sexually transmitted disease “which has permanently caused the little girl Ill- health.”
The prosecution tendered two exhibits- the confessional statement of the convict and the medical report from Rayuwal Sexual Reference Centre Police Clinic in Minna-before the court.
However, in an exclusive chat with an Enugu-based legal practitioner, Barr. Daniel Ogbe, he stated that, “actually the issue of child defilement has been on the increase in this country. It is an embarrassment because the life of these children being defiled are destroyed from the word go which relatively affect them even when they become adult. Rape is a very grievous offence.”
On the punishment to be meted out on the culprit, he suggested that the convict should face life imprisonment.
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