An Ikeja High Court on Tuesday sentenced a 22-year-old baker, Lawal Kamoru, who led a four-man gang that raped a 14-year-old girl to 13 years imprisonment.
Justice Raliatu Adebiyi, who handed down the judgment, said Kamoru was guilty of the one-count charge of defilement preferred against him by the police and so convicted him.
The offence is contrary to Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
During the trial, the State counsel, Mrs. O. R. Ahmed Muili, told the court that Kamoru and three others (still at large) took turns to rape the minor in an uncompleted building on Feb. 1, 2014, on Oluwanisola Street, Ilage, Bariga area of Lagos State.
Also giving her evidence in chief at the trial, the victim said that she and her younger sister (name withheld), were returning from a church vigil at 5.00a.m. when the incident occurred.
“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 in our direction, they ordered us to get up and go.
“They followed us 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.
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“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.
Asked how she left the building after the incident, she said that she had no recollection of how she left the uncompleted building, but that she woke up later in the hospital.
“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.
In her judgment, Adebiyi held that the age of the victim and the psychological trauma she experienced were considered while sentencing the baker.
