A bricklayer, Gabriel Awaye has been sentenced to life imprisonment by the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court in Ikeja on Wednesday for defiling a 13-year-old girl in his room at Agbawaye Street, Command Area of Agbado Oke-Odo in Lagos.

The charges brought against Awaye by the state government were based on the provisions of Sections 127 and 261 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State, 2015. The court heard that the offences occurred on June 2, 2021.

During the trial, the prosecutor accused Awaye of committing the heinous acts and presented evidence to support the charges.
In her judgment, Justice Soladoye, emphasized the credibility of the survivor’s testimony, noting that it was lucid and unambiguous, and it aligned with the accounts provided by other prosecution witnesses.

Soladoye stated “The prosecution witness one (the survivor) testified before this court that she was at her grandmother’s place when her friend, Rofiat, told her that her sister sent for her,”

“The witness narrated that when she got to the place, she did not meet her sister but saw the defendant, who pushed her on the mat and sodomised with her.

“The evidence of the defendant is laced with lies, as he tried to detach himself from the offence by saying the mother of the survivor tried to have a sexual relationship with him. To this court’s mind, the prosecution witnesses were truthful in their testimonies and their evidence were corroborated.”

“The survivor identified the defendant as the man who defiled her while she was 13 years old.
The defendant is hereby found guilty and is sentenced to life imprisonment on each of the two counts.

“The defendant, by his audacious sexual recklessness, was not fit to be in the community of civilised people, and should be locked away for life.

“He should have his name registered in the Lagos State Sexual Offences Register.”