Justice Okon Okon of the Akwa Ibom State High Court sitting in Uyo has described a convict, Iniobong Moses, as a “disgrace to humanity” for defiling his three-year-old stepdaughter.
The judge sentenced the convict to life imprisonment after his conviction on Wednesday.
Moses, 23, had been arraigned by the police for raping his stepdaughter at Ikot Akpe village in Uyo Local Government Area of the state.
The prosecution charged Moses for rape contrary to Section 367 of the Criminal Code Cap 38, Vol. 2 Laws of Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria, 2000.
The prosecution had told the court how Moses of Afaha Udo Eyop in Ibesikpo Asutan Local Government Area of the state in his confessional statement claimed he was drunk and that he “defiled the infant by putting his fingers and penis into the victim’s vagina on 8th November 2019 when his wife left for the market.”
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Delivering his judgement, Justice Okon rejection Moses’s claim of being drunk when he committed the act, ruling that “drunkenness is not an exculpatory defence in Law for the commission of a crime, and more so, as it was self-inflicted.”
Justice Okon noted that “the convict’s indefensible and despicable act has shown that he is callous and devoid of passion”.
The judge described the convict as “a disgrace to humanity, whose conduct falls abysmally below even the conduct of beasts.”
According to the judge, Moses “does not deserve to walk freely on Nigerian soil and breathe the air of freedom meant for decent members of the society.”
“In her childhood and angelic innocence and vulnerability, the victim could even have been looking at the accused gleefully in naivety expecting no hurt from the accused in loco parentis with her,” the judge held.
Justice Okon further held that the convict “deserves to be put away for a long time from public glare to save innocent children from being further brutalised and ravished by him.”