A 55-year-old man, Bashiru Adeyanju, has been sentenced to fourteen years imprisonment, without an option of fine, by an Ado-Ekiti High court for attempting to rape his seventeen-year old daughter.
The court found Adeyanju guilty of the offence of attempted rape of
his daughter due to his confessional statement and witnesses called during the trial.
The presiding judge, Justice Monisola Abodunde, did not find him guilty of the offence of serial rape which he was also charged with.
Justice Abodunde said after listening to both prosecution and defense counsels, the prosecution had proved his case beyond reasonable doubt and established the case of attempted rape of his daughter.
“The Court found you guilty as charged, but based on the plea of the defence counsel, describing him as a first offender, he is hereby
sentence to fourteen years imprisonment,” she added.
The Judge, however, said that the three years he had already spent in
jail should be subtracted from the jail term.
Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Mr. Wale Fapohunda, who doubled as the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice from the state Ministry of Justice, said that the convict committed the offences on September 10, 2017 at No 30, Irona Street, Ado-Ekiti.
He further stated that the convict on the said date, unlawfully attempted to have sexual intercourse with his seventeen year old daughter, names withheld.
According to him, the victim said that his father had started having sexual intercourse with her since she was ten years old and that
her father always gives her drugs to prevent pregnancy and threatened to kill her if she tells anyone.
The prosecution added that the convict, whose wife had left him since when the victim was ten years old, always beat the victim whenever she refused to have sexual intercourse with her.
According to Fapohunda, the offences contravened Sections 358 and 359 of the Criminal Code Law, Cap C 16, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.
The prosecution called five witnesses and tendered exhibits including pictures, statements of the convict and the victim.
The defence Counsels, Mr Yinka Opaleke who called only a witness pleaded for leniency, asking that the court should tamper Justice
with mercy with his client as he was a first time offender.
