An Osogbo Magistrate’s Court sitting in Osun state has sentenced a 34-year- old farmer, Nurudeen Olanbeloye, to 10 years imprisonment for raping an 11-year-old girl (name withheld).
DailyPost has gathered that the crime was committed in Nurudeen’s room at Sagba’s compound in Ikire town on April 24, 2013.
Olabeloye had earlier pleaded not guilty to the charges, but prayed the court to treat justice with mercy when he was convicted.
Police prosecutor, Inspector Meret Wilson, said the convict raped the girl when she came to collect the sum of N30, which was the money for the provisions she sold to Olanbeloye’s wife a day earlier.
The Presiding Magistrate, Mr Olusola Aluko, who found the accused guilty on two counts of unlawful defilement and forceful penetration, sentenced him to five years each on the two counts.
Magistrate Aluko, however, ruled that the two counts of 10 years must run concurrently.
Olanbeloye, an Ikire indigene stated in his statement to the police that , ” The victim agreed with me on that day to have had sex without any stress. She was the one that took her pants off. I didn’t rape her.
“I didn’t want to marry her because she is a small girl. I have never raped a child before. I know that what I did was wrong, please, pardon me.”
The police prosecutor said the criminal offence committed by Olanbeloye was punishable under Section 218 and 31(2) of the Criminal Code, Cap 34, Volume II, Laws of Osun State, and also a punishable offence under Child’s Right Law of Osun State of Nigeria, 2003 and 2007.
Counsel to the convict, Mr. Segun Komolafe, had prayed for leniency, saying as a first time offender, the convict should be given an option of fine.
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