An Ogun State High Court sitting in Abeokuta has sentenced a secondary school teacher, Ojo Ezekiel, to life imprisonment for raping a seven-year-old girl.
The 47-year-old teacher, who was first arraigned in court on July 1, 2022, was convicted on a sole count of rape.
The act was said to be contrary to section 3 (1) and punishable under section 3 (2) of the violence against persons (prohibition) law of Ogun State 2017.
Ezekiel is said to be a teacher in a secondary school that shares the same compound with the primary school that the victim attends.
The prosecuting counsel, Olusegun Olaotan, told the court that while the victim’s mother was bathing her seven-year-old daughter, she observed that something was wrong with her private part.
The minor, however, after persistent questioning, revealed to her mother how she was sexually abused by the convict.
Olaotan, in his final submission, said: “While giving her evidence in court, the second prosecution witness (PW2), who is the victim, said that the defendant used to pull aside her pant before inserting his finger into her vagina.
“Evidence of the third prosecution witness (PW3) (medical doctor) corroborates that of the second prosecution witness.
“She testified that in the course of examining the (PW2), she discovered that the hymen of the PW2 was not intact.
“t was opened by 2cm.”
Olaotan said that the PW2 evidence is corroborative of the fact that she was sexually abused indeed and the same was further corroborated by exhibits two and three as well as the evidence of (PW1), the mother of the child, who noticed while bathing her that something was wrong with her private part.
He further revealed that the victim mentioned the name of the defendant as the only person who repeatedly four times inserted his finger into the private part.
The victim reportedly told the court that the defendant usually carried out this heinous crime inside his car, parked under a tree, after school hours, after which he would instruct the victim not to tell anyone or else she would be beaten.
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Olaotan thereafter urged the court to go ahead and punish the defendant for his misdeeds as evidence before the court was quite overwhelming and weighty enough to hold that the 47-year-old was guilty of rape and should be convicted accordingly.
The judge, Hon. Justice Abiodun Akinyemi, said the prosecuting counsel had established the case of rape against the accused and thereafter sentenced him to life imprisonment.
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