An Ikeja High Court on Tuesday sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment, a 22-year-old baker, Lawal Kamoru, who led a four-man gang that defiled a 14-year-old.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Justice Raliatu Adebiyi found Kamoru guilty and convicted him on a one-count charge of defilement, contrary to Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
Adebiyi held that the age of the victim and the psychological trauma she experienced were considered while sentencing the baker.
“The defendant is hereby sentenced to 13 years’ in prison custody,” she said.
State counsel, Mrs O. R. Ahmed Muili, had told the court that the convict and three others (now at large) took turns to defile the teenager in an uncompleted building on Feb. 1, 2014, on Oluwanisola Street, Ilage, Bariga, Lagos State.
NAN reports that the victim while giving evidence during the trial, said that she and her younger sister (name withheld), were on their way home from a church vigil at 5.00a.m. when the crime occurred.
She said they were accosted by the convict and his accomplices who commanded them to kneel down, adding that the four men took turns to rape her inside an uncompleted building.
The teenager identified the convict as the leader of the gang.
“I was returning from church with my younger sister at about 5.00a.m. when they stopped us and ordered us to kneel down.
“On sighting some people coming on our direction, they ordered us to get up and go,” she said.
She said that when they stood up and walked away, they quietly followed her and her sister.
“They followed behind while one of them flashed a torch. When we realised that they were still following us, we tried to run but they threatened to kill us.
“They told us to kneel down again and started beating us; my sister started shouting and one of them stylishly chased my younger sister away.
“The remaining three forced me into an uncompleted building and raped me. I remember the defendant very well. He was the first to rape me and the one who actually tore my pant.
“Kamoru was the first person to remove his trouser and the others thereafter took turns, including the one that drove my sister away. He came back and joined them.
“They left the torch light on a window; that was how I was able to see their faces,” she said.
She told the court that she had no recollection of how she left the uncompleted building but that she woke up later in the hospital after spending two days on a sick bed.
“I spent two days in a hospital and kept going back for treatment when I regained consciousness.
“I have never had sexual intercourse with any man until I was molested and raped.
“My parents reported the
case at Bariga Police Station and I went to make a statement,” she narrated. (NAN)