Bricklayer bags life jail for defiling 13-year-old girl

An Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Wednesday sentenced a bricklayer, Gabriel Awaye, to life in prison twice for defiling a 13-year-old girl in his room. Justice Abiola Soladoye held that the prosecution proved the ingredients of the two-count charge of defilement and sexual assault against Awaye. Soladoye said that the defendant, by […]

An Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Wednesday sentenced a bricklayer, Gabriel Awaye, to life in prison twice for defiling a 13-year-old girl in his room.

Justice Abiola Soladoye held that the prosecution proved the ingredients of the two-count charge of defilement and sexual assault against Awaye.

Soladoye said that the defendant, by his audacious sexual recklessness, was not fit to be in the community of civilised people and should be locked away for life.

The judge said, “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.

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“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 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 counts and he should have his name registered in the Lagos State Sexual Offences Register.”

Earlier, the state counsel, Ms Abimbola Abolade, presented three witnesses during trial while the convict testified as a sole witness.

The prosecutor submitted that the defendant committed the offences on June 2, 2021, on Agbawaye Street, Command, Agbado Oke-Odo, Lagos, contrary to Sections 127 and 261 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State 2015. (NAN)