TheCable

An Ikeja sexual offences and domestic violence court in Lagos, has sentenced Gabriel Aweye, a bricklayer, to life imprisonment for raping a 13-year old girl in the state.

Abiola Soladoye, the trial judge, found the bricklayer guilty of the two-count charge of defilement and sexual assault.

The prosecution team said the bricklayer committed the offence on June 2, 2021 at Agbawaye street, command area of Agbado Oke-Odo in Lagos.

The 13-year-old survivor told the court that she was at her grandmother’s place at Agbawaye street when a friend identified as Rofiat told her that her sister wanted to see her.

In a statement on Wednesday, Lagos State Sexual and Domestic Violence Agency (LSDVA) said that when the survivor got to her sister’s place, the suspect pushed her to the mat and raped her.

The agency said the judge sentenced the bricklayer to life imprisonment and ordered that his name be registered in the Lagos State Sexual Offences Register.

“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 agency quoted the judge as saying.

“The witness narrated that when she got to the place, she did not meet her sister, but saw the defendant who pushed her to 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.

“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.”