A 45-year-old teacher in Ekiti State named Oluwagbemi Alabi has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for raping an eight-year-old girl.
Alabi was claimed to have committed the offence in 1999. On August 25, 2023, he was charged with one count of rape in the state high court.
Section 358 of the Criminal Code, Cap 30, Laws of Ondo State, Nigeria, 1978, prohibits and punishes the offence.
The girl, who referred to Alabi as “my teacher and neighbour,” testified before the court and described how the accused raped her at home.
“He touched 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 me 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.
“I was afraid anytime I saw him in the class,” she said.
She further stated that Alabi made her a friend request on Facebook in 2012, which she did not accept.
“In the 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 a legal action against him,” she told the court.
The prosecutor, Kunle-Shina Adeyemo, also called two witnesses and presented a confessional statement of the defendant, evidence of the defendant’s communications with the nominal complainant, a petition, and a printout from a snapshot of chats as exhibits.
Alabi also spoke in his defence through his lawyer, Ademola Adeyemi.
The judge, Lekan Ogunmoye, stated in his judgement that the sexual encounter with the victim could not have been consensual because the juvenile could not consent to sexual intercourse.
“The defendant is hereby sentenced to 15 years imprisonment without option of fine,” the judge pronounced.
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