Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
Justice Abiola Soladoye of an Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court has sentenced a randy bricklayer, Gabriel Awaye, to a double life imprisonment for defiling a 13-year-old girl in his room in Lagos.
Justice Abiola Soladoye, while passing the judgement, told the convicted bricklayer, Awaye, that by his audacious sexual recklessness, he was not fit to be in the community of civilized people and should be locked up for life.
In her judgement, Justice Soladoye held that the prosecution proved the ingredients of the two counts charge of defilement and sexual assault against Awaye, adding that the survivor was lucid and unambiguous while giving her evidence before the court.
Justice Soladoye, who stated that the survivor’s witness was equally corroborated with other prosecution witnesses, maintained that “The prosecution witness one (survivor) testified before this court that she was at her grandmother’s place when her friend, Rofiat, told her that her sister sent for her.
“The witness said when she got to the place, she did not meet her sister but saw the defendant who pushed her on the mat and sodomised her.
“The evidence of the defendant is laced with lies, as he tried to detach himself from the offence by saying the mother of the survivor tried to have sexual relationship with him. “To the mind of this court, the prosecution witnesses were truthful in their testimonies and their evidence were corroborated.”
The judge suggested that, upon careful evidence adduced before the court, Awaye remained guilty of the two-count charge. According to the trial judge, “The survivor identified the defendant as the man who defiled her while she was 13 years old. “The defendant is hereby found guilty and is sentenced to life imprisonment on each of the two-count charges, and he should have his name registered in the Lagos State Sexual Offences Register.”
While the trial lasted, counsel for the Lagos State Government (LASG), Ms Abimbola Abolade, presented three witnesses, while the convict testified as the sole witness.
In her argument before the judge, the prosecutor posited that the convict committed the offence on June 2, 2021, on Agbawaye Street, Command, Agbado Oke-Odo, Lagos. The offence, according to the prosecution, contravened Sections 127 and 261 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State 2015.