Court jails 70-year-old chief for raping pupils

An Osun State High Court sitting in Ilesa has sentenced a septuagenarian, Chief Moses Adeniyi, to seven years’ imprisonment for raping two teenage pupils.

The judgment is contained in a statement issued by the Information Officer of the Osun State Ministry of Justice, Mr. Opeyemi Bello, in Osogbo on thursday.

Adeniyi, who is the Loja, Araromi Otokobo, was arraigned in court on March 28, 2011, and charged with rape and indecent assault.

The prosecution team from the Ministry of Justice comprising Tijani Adekilekun and Folasade Adekomi told the court that the convict offered a free ride to the girls, who were coming back from the school, and he drove them to his hotel where he raped them.

The team told the court that the two offences were contrary to the provisions of sections 358 and 360 of the Criminal Code, Cap 34, vol.11, Law of Osun State.

Justice Kudirat Akano held that the prosecution counsel proved beyond reasonable doubt that Adeniyi unlawfully had carnal knowledge of the two girls and thereafter sentenced him to seven years’ imprisonment.

The statement explained further that Adeniyi was a former neighbour of the victims’ parents, adding that the two girls, aged 13 and 14 respectively, were pupils of St.Margaret Girls School, Ilesa in May 2010, when the incident happened.

It said, “After defiling them, he wiped their private parts with a piece of white cloth and threatened them that anyone who disclosed his action would die.

“But one of the parents of the victims was said to have been told that her daughter was given a free ride by a man and she went to inquire from the school who the man was.

“The girls were said to have initially refused to disclose what Adeniyi did to them for fear of death. They were given an assurance that nothing would happen to them before they narrated their ordeal.”