A High Court in Ekiti, sitting in Ado Ekiti, has sentenced two teachers to 44 years of imprisonment for committing rape, without the option of a fine.
During the proceedings, the prosecution, represented by Kunle-Shina Adeyemi, stated that the defendants, Gbenga Ajibola, 43, and Olaofe Ayodele, 52, were charged before Justice Adeniyi Familoni on March 2, 2022, with three counts related to rape and the misuse of their authority.
The court was informed that the defendants had, in November 2019, raped two female students aged 17 and 15, whose names have been withheld for privacy reasons.
According to him, the offence contravened Section 31(2) of the Childs Right Law, Cap. C7, Laws of Ekiti State, 2012.
In her testimony before the court, one of the victims said that one of the convicts, Ajibola, was her computer teacher, and always disturbing her while in class.
“On this fateful day, he told me to be in mufti and gave me N200 to go and wait for him in front of a filling station along Bank Road. He later came there alongside Mr Olaofe, but before they came, one of my classmates also met me there, he told me that Mr Olaofe asked her to wait here for him. When they came, we all left for a hotel, around the Oke-Ila area of Ado Ekiti, on getting there, we were taken to different rooms where Mr Ajibola had sexual intercourse with me. After that day, he continued to disturb me, when I could no longer bear it, I narrated what happened to my mother who later took the matter up,” she narrated.
To prove his case, the prosecutor called four witnesses and tendered statements of the victims and defendants, medical reports, as well as report of the panel of enquiry among others as exhibits.
Also, Counsel to the defendants, Lawrence Fasanmi called six witnesses to prove his case.
In his judgement, Justice Familoni said, the defendants shared their minds and mulled the voice of conscience as they took advantage of the victims with reckless abandonment.
“They deserved severe panel sanction for their misdeeds to serve as a warning and deterrent to others who may want to follow their footsteps,”.
Justice Familoni thereby sentenced the defendants, Ajibola Gbenga and Olaofe Ayodele to 20 years imprisonment each without an option of fine on count one and two years each on count two without option of fine, making 44 years imprisonment, saying that it should run concurrently.
(NAN)