Lagos court sentences bricklayer to life imprisonment for defiling 13-year-old girl
Lagos court sentences bricklayer to life imprisonment for defiling 13-year-old girl
Justice Abiola Soladoye of the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court, Ikeja, Lagos State has sentenced a bricklayer, Gabriel Awaye, to life imprisonment for defiling a 13-year-old girl in his room.
The judge sentenced him after finding him guilty as charged by the state government.
The prosecutor had alleged that Awaye committed the offences on June 2, 2021, at Agbawaye Street, Command area of Agbado Oke-Odo in Lagos.
His offences, according to the prosecution, contravened the provision of Sections 127 and 261 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015.
In her judgment, Justice Soladoye, said the prosecution proved the ingredients of the two-count charge of defilement and sexual assault against the defendant.
The judge held that the survivor was lucid and unambiguous while giving her evidence before the court, noting that her testimony corroborated with other prosecution witnesses.
“The prosecution witness one (the 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 narrated that when she got to the place, she did not meet her sister, but saw the defendant who pushed her on the mat and sodomised with 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 a sexual relationship with him.
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The judge said, “To the mind of this court, the prosecution witnesses were truthful in their testimonies and their evidence was corroborated.”
The judge, upon evidence before the court, found Awaye guilty of the two-count charge and sentenced him to life imprisonment.