An Ota Magistrates’ Court in Ogun on Thursday sentenced a 26-year-old homosexual, Michael Kudowo, to 11 years for raping four male minors. The senior magistrate, Mr Shotunde Shotayo, also ruled that the convict must serve the sentence at the correctional centre in Abeokuta, Ogun, without any option of fine.
Shotayo also ordered that the four male minors (names withheld) and aged between 12 years and 15 years should be taken to Borstal Training Institution, Abeokuta for reorientation. Kudowo, who lives within Ile-Ita area, Ota, had pleaded guilty to the three-count charge of kidnapping, raping and having carnal knowledge of minors before his conviction.
Earlier, the prosecutor, Insp. Cynthia Ejezie, had told the court that Kudowo committed the offences between August 2018 and December 2019 in Ile-Ita area. Ejezie said that Kudowo had kidnapped the four minors from various locations in Sango-Ota, Mushin and Ijebu-Ode, and kept them in his residence.
The prosecutor said that Kudowo had carnal knowledge of his victims through their anuses in his residence. She said that it was Kudowo’s landlord that discovered the incident after Kudowo had gone to work. The prosecutor said that Kudowo’s being away to work gave the landlord the opportunity to interrogate one of the minors.
The prosecutor said that Kudowo was arrested after the landlord had reported the case at Sango-Ota Police Station. She said that Kudowo at the police station confessed and admitted to have committed the crime. She said that the offences contravened Sections 214(1), 216 and 365 of the Criminal Code, Laws of Ogun, 2006.
Sometimes back Sani, who resides in Makarfi Local Government Area of Kaduna State, is charged with one-count of unnatural offence. The prosecutor, Insp. Chidi Leo, told the court that the defendant, lured a 14-year-old boy to his farm in Makarfi LGA, and sodomised the minor. Leo said that during investigation, the defendant voluntary confessed to the crime.
The offence, he said, contravened the provisions of Section 259 of the Kaduna State Penal Code Law, 2017.
