The Benue State High Court sitting in Makurdi has sentenced a 29-year-old man, Denen Agena, to six years’ imprisonment for raping a 14-year-old girl.
Agena, a married man with children, was said to have raped the victim and abandoned her in an uncompleted building in 2020.
The presiding judge, Justice Ijoho, in his ruling delivered on Monday maintained that the penalty was to serve as a deterrence to others intending to commit a similar crime.
The convict’s ordeal began after Lawyers Alert (LA) in partnership with Global Women took up the case to seek justice for the victim.
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In a suit No. MHC/12C/2021 brought before the court, the case was between the state government and Denen Agena, the offender.
Agena had told the court that the victim was his girlfriend and that she consented to having canal knowledge of her in his house during which she started bleeding and he used his shirt to clean the bloodstains.
But, delivering the judgement, Justice Ijoho held that in a country like Nigeria, a mature 29-year-old man cannot have a 14-year-old child as his girlfriend, describing Agena as “a pedophile.”
The judge also held that where a suspect confessed to have committed a crime, medical test became unnecessary in the case of rape.
Justice Ijoho therefore sentenced the defendant to six years’ imprisonment with a fine of N100,000, adding that failure to pay the fine, the convict would serve additional 12 months in prison, making it a total of seven years.
The defendant’s counsel, S.S Akighir, however, appealed to the court to temper justice with mercy for the simple reason that, “the young man has a tender family to cater for” and it was his first time to have committed the crime.
But the judge maintained that the penalty was to serve as a deterrence to others intending to commit a similar crime.
Reacting to the judgement, Victor Eboh, Senior Legal Advisor of Lawyers Alert, said, “it was a happy day especially for those who hunger for justice”, lamenting that rape cases had become rampant in Benue State.
Eboh described the judgment as justice for all girls and women whose hands had been tied by technicalities, stressing that the judgement meant victory for all the victims and survivors of rape and all forms of gender-based violence.
