Court jails three students in Kwara for gang raping cousin

Vanguard reliably gathered that the court found them guilty on a two-count charge of criminal conspiracy and rape of the victim (name witheld) at Adangba area of Ilọrin, the Kwara State capital.

The convicts, Omotosho Yahaya, 23, who is the cousin of the victim, Mustapha Ahmed, 23 and 22 years old Mustapha Ridwan, are students of a tertiary institution in the state.

The first defendant (Omotosho) was said to have invited his two friends to join him in the act while with the victim in the room.

They were sentenced to five years imprisonment for rape and 2 years for criminal conspiracy.

The sentences which include an additional N50,000 fine, are to run concurrently.

Justice Akinpelu while delivering her judgement, held that “The confessional statements of the defendants are clear, unambiguous and equivocal contrary to the argument of their counsel”.

According to her, “No Woman in her right senses will consent to and allow three men to have sex with her.

“Exhibit 1, (a plank) recovered from the scene of crime attested to the fact that the victim was threatened and rape coupled with other tests from a government hospital conducted on her”, she submitted.

Though desirable, Akinpelu added that “it is not in all cases that the absence of the victim in court due to certain circumstances can be relied upon to argue a case”.

She also described their “claims that she owed them money as a fairy tale” and pronounced them “guilty as charged”.

In her response to the judgement, Prosecutor, Muslimat Suleiman, a principal counsel from the Kwara State ministry of Justice, said the judge has done justice to the case having evaluated all the evidences before her.

For his part, the Director Office of the Public Defender, Ishola Saka Olofere who defended the first and second defendant, described the judgement as a “good one even though it was against us looking at the industry exhibited by the judge.”