Court sentences carpenter to life imprisonment for raping 12-year-old girl twice

ARINZE NWAFOR, Lagos

An Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court has sentenced a carpenter, Tayo Akinboyewa to life imprisonment for raping a 12-year-old girl twice.

Justice Rahman Oshodi, on Tuesday, held that the prosecution proved the charge of defilement against Akinboyewa and that the ingredients of unlawful sexual intercourse with a 12-year-old primary pupil (name withheld) were present.

Oshodi said the 12-year-old survivor testified that the defendant, Akinboyewa, aged 26, had sexual intercourse with her.

The judge said the medical report presented in court backed up the survivor’s testimony and there was abundant evidence that the defendant had sexual intercourse with the survivor, who, to his knowledge, was a child.

Oshodi said the defendant confessed to having sexual intercourse with the survivor twice.

He said the defendant’s confession, along with the medical report corroborated the testimony of the witness and that the evidence given by the survivor’s mother and the Investigative Police Officer (IPO) linked Akinboyewa to the offence.

The judge gave a rundown of the survivor’s evidence in which she noted that the defendant lived on the same street as her family in Oshodi and that he came to her house to borrow a fetcher to draw from the water in her family’s house.

He said it was in the process of getting water that the defendant used the rope of the fetcher to pull the 12-year-old girl to himself and forcefully had sex with her in the house’s backyard.

Oshodi said that the defendant committed the offence on the first occasion in December 2020 and on a second occasion in January 2021, when the defendant came to the survivor’s mother’s shop near the canal and had sex with her.

The judge said he had looked for other credible evidence that the defendant had sex with the survivor outside the confessional statement he gave.

Oshodi said, “He [Akinboyewa] used to fetch water from the prosecutrix’s house, he used to borrow fetcher and also visit her mother’s shop near the canal.”

He held that the defendant’s confessional statement satisfied all the legal requirements of a confessional statement but insisted a confession was not a reason to allow Akinboyewa to walk out of the court a free man.

Oshodi said it would not be in society’s interest to allow the defendant to walk free and that it would make the trial a mockery.

He ruled in favour of the prosecution and against the defendant, found him guilty and convicted him under section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.

Oshodi told the convict, “Your actions were a gross violation of the victim’s innocence, dignity and bodily integrity.

“You took advantage of your status as a neighbour and the victim’s young age to sexually abuse her for your gratification, with no regard for the trauma and harm inflicted upon her,” the judge added.

Oshodi told the convict that he had confessed to his crimes, but went on to plead not guilty which brought the need for a two-year-long trial.

He said that regardless of the defence counsel’s appeal for mercy, the convict did not show remorse and failed to say any words of consolation towards the survivor and her family.

Oshodi sentenced the convict to life imprisonment and ordered that his name be registered in the sex offender register of Lagos State.

He counselled the convict, “While in incarceration, I urge you to reflect deeply on your actions and strive for redemption. The victim and her family will have to live with the impact of your crimes.

Further, the judge said, “I hope this sentence provides them some justice and closure, knowing the perpetrator is being held accountable.”

The prosecutor, Babajide Boye told the court that the convict committed the offence sometime in May 2021 on Titilayo Street, Oshodi, Lagos.

Boye called three witnesses while the defendant testified as the sole witness