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The Ekiti State Government has named and shamed a 72-year-old man, Sule Adeola, who is serving a life sentence at the Nigeria Correctional Centre, Ado Ekiti, for r@ping a 10-year-old girl.
A public notice by the state Ministry of Justice this week stated that Adeola has been registered in the ministry’s S@x Offenders Register.
Recall that Ekiti State High Court, Ado Ekiti Division, sentenced Adeola to life imprisonment on October 2, 2024.
The defendant was charged to court on June 22, 2023, on a one-count charge bordering on r@pe.
The charge read, “That Sule Adeola on 2nd June 2023 at the Federal Housing Estate in Ado Ekiti did rape a 10-year-old girl, contrary to Section 31(1) of the Child’s Right Law, Cap. C7, laws of Ekiti State, 2012.”
The 10-year-old victim living with her grandmother, had said that the defendant, who was her grandmother’s neighbour, violated her between 2021 and 2023, but she did not tell her grandmother initially because the defendant had promised to k!ll her.
To prove his case, the prosecutor, Julius Ajibare, called four witnesses and tendered the defendant’s statement and medical report as exhibits.
The defendant spoke through his counsel, Adefolaju Ayobioloja, and called three witnesses.
In the judgment, Justice Blessing Ajileye, said, “It is unfortunate and saddening that recorded cases of intimate person’s sexual assault, hit new high every day
“From the totality of evidence on record, I am more persuaded by the prosecution’s evidence that there was proof of penetration, there is no scintilla of evidence available in the contrary. In all, I found that the prosecution proved the most essential ingredient of rape i.e. penetration. The defendant penetrated the vagina of the victim and I so hold.”
The judge pronounced, “The defendant, Sule Adeola, is found guilty of the offence of rape of a 10 years old girl as charged. He is accordingly sentenced to life imprisonment.”