Finally! A Rapist Gets Sentenced In Benin For Defiling A Five-Year-Old Girl

An Evbuoriaria Magistrates’ Court sitting in Benin, Edo State, has sentenced a 24-year-old man, Osazuwa Edigin, to five years’ imprisonment for defiling a five-year-old girl, the Punch reports.

Even though the prescribed penalty by the Senate for raping a child under 11 is life imprisonment, Osazuwa’s sentencing is a welcome development in a country where cases like this are swept under the carpet.

According to the Punch;

The prosecutor, Aigbodion Obakpolor, had told the court that the offence was committed on July 10, 2014, at Aziegbe Street, off Sakponba Road in Benin, the state capital.

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The charge read, “That you, Osazuwa Edigin, on July 14, 2014, at about 11am on Aziegbe Street, off Sakponba Road, Benin City, in Evbuoriaria Magisterial District, did defile one (name withheld) aged five, by inserting your penis into her private parts, and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 218 of the Criminal Code, Cap 48, Vol. II, Law of the defunct Bendel State of Nigeria, 1976, as applicable in Edo State.”

Although Edigin had pleaded not guilty to the offence, the presiding magistrate, Mr. Frank Idiake, ruled that he would serve his jail term with hard labour.