The Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Tuesday sentenced a man, Eniola Ibrahim, to life imprisonment for raping his girlfriend.

Justice Rahmon Oshsodi found Mr Ibrahim guilty of having sexual intercourse with his girlfriend without her consent.

Mr Oshodi, in his judgment, held that the prosecution had proved the necessary ingredients to establish the offence of rape.

He said the defendant’s landlord’s testimony was sufficiently corroborated as also the weight of the medical report.

“The court has also taken into cognisance remarks made by the defendant that he loves the victim.

” You must not hurt people that you love. The evidence in this case demonstrates that you did not just rape the victim, but you did it in a ferocious and animalistic way.

“You hit her on the face, which made it swollen. She had bloody eyes and swollen lips.

“You pinned her neck to your bed and raped her. A man like you who has committed sexual violence against a woman should be ashamed and must be punished,” he said.

The judge held that a woman or a girl who was a victim of sexual violence had committed no crime as she needed not to be ashamed.

“In your case, I do consider the seriousness of the offence to justify a life sentence, and that is the sentence I must, therefore, impose upon you.

“Accordingly, I sentence you, Mr Eniola Wasiu Ibrahim, to life imprisonment,” Mr Oshodi said.

The court further ordered that the convict’s name be registered as a sex offender on Lagos State sexual offenders register.

The state counsel, Inumidun, called four witnesses through whom various documents were admitted into evidence while the convict testified as the sole witness.

The prosecution submitted that the convict committed the offence on June 6, 2012, at his residence on Lateef Dosumu Street in Lagos.

Mr Wasiu was arraigned on December 1, 2021, and pleaded not guilty.

The survivor, in her testimony, had told the court that the defendant invited her to his house and pinned her neck to his bed, and then raped her when she went to visit him on his home on a Sunday afternoon.

“I told him I did not want to stay long, and then he locked the door and carried me to the room,” she said.

She said that he forced open her trouser zip and took nude pictures of her, and raped her.

(NAN)