Teacher Bags Life Imprisonment For Raping 7-year-old Girl

A High Court, sitting in Abeokuta, Ogun State capital, on Monday sentenced a 47 year-old secondary school teacher, Ojo Ezekiel to life imprisonment, for raping a seven year-old girl.

Ojo, who was first arraigned on
1st of July 2022, was convicted on a sole count of rape contrary to section 3 (1) and punishable under section 3 (2) of the violence against persons (prohibition) law of Ogun state 2017.

Ojo is said to be a teacher in the secondary school which shares the same compound with the primary school that the seven year old attended.

The prosecuting counsel, Mr Olusegun Olaotan had 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 seven year-old, 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 use 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 testistified that in the course of examining the (PW2) she discovered that the hymen of the PW2 was not intact. it was opened by 2cm”

He said that PW2 evidence is corroborative of the fact that she was sexually abused indeed and same was further corroborated by exhibit two and three as well as the evidence of the (PW1), the mother of the child who noticed while bathing her that something was wrong with her private part.

Olaotan 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 of the under-age girl.

The victim reportedly told the court that the defendant usually carried out this heinous crime inside his car usually parked under a tree after school hours after which he would instruct the victim not to tell anyone or else she would be beaten

Olaotan urged the court to go ahead and punish the defendant for his misdeeds as evidence before the court are quite overwhelming and weighty enough to hold that the defendant is guilty of rape and should be convicted accordingly.

Justice Abiodun Akinyemi in his judgement said the prosecuting counsel has established the case of rape against the accused and thereafter sentenced him to life imprisonment.