- Air Force personnel rapes 9-year-old
Moshood Adebayo and Molly Kilete
A Lagos State High Court has sentenced Ediong Udoh, a 25-year-old man, to life imprisonment for defiling a 16-year-old girl. The rapist, Udoh, was yesterday found guilty of defilement and sexual assault by penetration, contrary to sections 137 and 261 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
The state government had earlier pledged zero tolerance for all incidents of domestic and sexual violence, vowing that perpetrators of such offences would not go unpunished.
In his judgement, Justice Hakeem Oshodi agreed that the prosecution, led by the state’s attorney-general, Mr. Adeniji Kazeem, proved beyond doubt that Udoh, in 2016, intentionally lured the 16-year-old victim to a house at No, Adekunle Street, in the Ayobo area of Lagos. Kazeem said, under the pretext of getting her a job, the accused forcefully had carnal knowledge of the victim, who at the time was a minor.
The court, before sentencing Udoh to life imprisonment, agreed with the prosecution that all ingredients of the offences of defilement and sexual assault were proved against the convict.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) has arrested one of its personnel for raping the nine-year-old daughter of his colleague in the barracks. The suspect, Corporal Eteng, was arrested on June 25, following a complaint by the father of the underage girl.
Daily Sun gathered that the suspect, who is now in the custody of the Air Police at the NAF base located along the Abuja Airport Road in Abuja, was said to have confessed to the crime even as the NAF police is continuing with investigations to unravel if the suspect had been in the act for sometime now and probably abused more underage girls in the barracks.
Daily Sun gathered that the incident, which happened at the NAF Valley Barracks, Abuja, was detected by the lesson teacher of the nine-year-old girl when she reported for duty to take the little girl in her classes.