LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)- Three students of a tertiary institution in Kwara State have been convicted by a Kwara State High Court for conspiring and gang-raping a cousin of one of them.
The court found them guilty on a two-count charge of criminal conspiracy and rape of the victim (name withheld) at the Adangba area of Ilorin, Kwara State.
The convicts, Omotosho Yahaya, 23, who is the cousin of the victim; Mustapha Ahmed, 23 and 22-year-old Mustapha Ridwan, were students of a tertiary institution (name withheld) in the state.
The first defendant was said to have invited his two friends to join him in the act against the victim in the room.
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Justice Adenike Akinpelu sentenced the defendants to five years imprisonment for rape and two years for criminal conspiracy. The sentences, which include an additional N50,000 fine, are to run concurrently.
In her judgement, Akinpelu said, “The confessional statements of the defendants are clear, unambiguous and equivocal contrary to the argument of their counsel.
“No woman in her right senses will consent to and allow three men to have sex with her.
“Exhibit 1 (a plank) recovered from the scene of crime attested to the fact that the victim was threatened and raped coupled with other tests from a Government hospital conducted on her.”
The Judge further described their “claims that she owed them money as a fairy tale” and pronounced them “guilty as charged”.
Responding to the judgment, prosecutor Muslimat Suleiman, a principal counsel from the Kwara State Ministry of Justice, said the judge had done justice to the case, having evaluated all the evidence before her.