A 29-year-old married man, Denen Agena, will be spending the next 6 years in prison custody over alleged unlawful sex with a neighbour’s 14-year old daughter in Benue State.
P.M.EXPRESS reports that it was the judgment of the Benue State High Court sitting in Makurdi, which sentenced him having been found guilty for rape.
The convict, Agena, allegedly raped the victim and abandoned her in an uncompleted building in 2020 before she was later rescued and the matter was reported to the Police; he was then arrested and charged before the Court.
The sentence was handed to him by Justice Ijoho on Monday, 30th October, 2023, as well being imposed with a fine of N100,000 for the dastardly act.
The convict, Agenda, tried to defend himself by telling the Court that victim was his girlfriend and that she consented to him having canal knowledge of her in his house, during which she started bleeding and he used his shirt to clean the bloodstains.
However, Justice Ijoho held that in a country like Nigeria, a mature 29-year old man cannot have a 14-year old child as his girlfriend. The Judge described Agena as “a paedophile” and also held that where a suspect confessed to have committed a crime, medical test became unnecessary in the case of rape.
Asides from being handed a 6-year jail sentence, Agena was also asked to pay a fine of N100,000, failure of which will lead to him serving an additional 12 months in prison.
The Presiding Judge, Ijoho, maintained that the penalty was to serve as a deterrent to others intending to commit a similar crime in future.