An Ado-Ekiti High Court has
sentenced a middle aged man, Innocent
Eze, to eight years imprisonment
for defiling a 12-year-old
girl last Friday.
Eze, who was found guilty on a
two-count charge, was sentenced
to one year imprisonment for indecent
assault while he bagged
a seven-year jail term for defilement.
The eight years will run
concurrently.
In his plea for Eze, his lawyer
asked the court to temper justice
with mercy, thereby drawing flak
from the presiding judge
In his judgment, Justice Adekanye
Ogunmoye described the
crime as barbaric.
“It’s unfortunate that a 12-yearold
girl would have been sexually
defiled as was done to the victim
in this case. It is more unfortunate
that the matter came to the
public domain.
The wife of the governor, Erelu
Bisi Fayemi, while condemning
the act by Eze, described it
as “abhorrent,” saying it was a
major victory for her crusade
against sexual and child abuse.
In a statement by her media
aide, Mr. Akin Oyedele, she expressed
the hope that it would
extendserve
as deterrent to other pedophiles
and perverts on the prowl
that Ekiti State would not be a
haven for sexual offenders.
The governor’s wife also advised
parents to be wary of the kind of
errands they send their young
girls, stressing that experience
had shown that young girls fall
prey to predatory people when
running errands.
Testifying before the court, a
doctor attached to the General
Hospital, Ijan Ekiti, confirmed
that the otherwise innocent girl’s
hymen had been “traumatised
with laceration along the vaginal
wall”.