Man Gets Life Imprisonment for Raping Girl at Gunpoint in Akwa Ibom

Okon Bassey in Uyo

Without any option of fine, an Uyo High Court, Akwa Ibom State capital, has convicted a middle aged man, Godwin Ime Alex, to life imprisonment for raping a young girl, Miss. Nancy Michael Ekerefre at gunpoint about three years ago.

Justice G. E. Archibong, who passed the judgment said the prosecution had in the course of the trial proved the charge of rape beyond all reasonable doubts, but pardoned the convict on the second charge of stealing “for want of evidence”.

The prosecution had told the court that the convict had on November 25, 2014, along Abak Road, Uyo, dragged one Miss. Nancy Michael Ekefre, to the back of the Corpers’ Lodge and forcefully had canal knowledge of her.
The victim who testified before the Court, said: “As i was returning from a visit to a friend on the said date when I passed through a narrow path, I was accosted by Alex, who was pretending to be defecating”.

Alex, she said threatened to shoot her if she would not cooperate with him, saying the fear of being shot, coupled with the fact that nobody was on sight to rescue her, the convict had the upper hand.

“At that point, he (Alex) dragged me behind the Corpers’ Lodge and commanded me to hold the fence, stripped me off my trousers and forcefully penetrated without my consent”, she narrated.
In the confessional statement tendered by the prosecution, the convict confessed to the crime, admitting “I ordered her to hold the fence and I inserted my penis into her vagina and sexed her.”

The court listed grounds under which a suspect in such circumstances can be convicted within three evidential conditions including testimony of eyewitnesses, confessional statement of an accused and circumstantial evidence.
Other grounds include that “a man must have canal knowledge of a woman without her consent or the consent was obtained under duress, intimidation, fear, impersonation, or false pretence, which resulted in penetration and that evidence of the complainant must be corroborated.”

Accordingly, the court held that the evidence of the victim was adequately corroborated by the confessional evidence of the accused person, disclosing that “the statement was admitted in evidence without the accused raising any objection that it was obtained by oppression”.

Amid tears, the convict pleaded for mercy, saying “I have realised that what I did was totally wrong”. His counsel also pleaded that his client should be handed a lesser punishment since he was a first offender.
Justice Archibong ignored their pleas and sent the accused to jail for life, saying the decision followed a painstaking investigation and establishment of the truth through the statements of two parties.

“Considering the graphic description of how he raped the PW1 in his confessional statement, it was easy to conclude that the accused person was a callous and heartless rapist, who deserves the maximum sentence for his offence,” he declared.