An Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure, the state capital, has sentenced a resident of the state, Kolawole Apoti, to life imprisonment for raping four teenage schoolgirls after giving them N100.

One of the victims was identified as the convict’s niece, a secondary school pupil, who invited other teenage girls to his house where he forcefully had sex with them and gave each of them N100.

Apoti had reportedly been having sex with his niece for a long time before she started introducing her friends to the incestuous uncle.

It was gathered that Kolawole was exposed when the victims were fighting over the money he gave them, and their school principal got wind of the altercation.

The matter was reported at a police station, after which the convict was arrested and charged.

After a series of arguments between the defence counsel and the prosecution counsel, the court held that the prosecution “proved its case beyond reasonable doubts”, noting that Kolawole raped the girls who were supposed to be his children.

The trial judge, Justice Olutoyin Akeredolu, found him guilty as charged and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

Meanwhile, a magistrates’ court in the state has ordered the remand of two Fulani herdsmen, Babuga Mallam and Manu Abubakar, for allegedly killing a farmer identified as Adebayo Festus.

The duo was said to have committed the offence “about 2 pm on February 5, 2021, on the deceased farmland at Ajowa Akoko in the Akoko North- West Local Government Area of Ondo State.”

According to the police prosecutor, Mary Adebayo, the offence contravened sections 324 and 319(1) of the Criminal Code Cap 37, Vol. 1 Laws of the Ondo State of Nigeria 2006.

She urged the court to remand the defendants in prison custody pending the outcome of the legal advice from the Director of Public Prosecution office.

The presiding magistrate, Mrs Folasade Aduroja, remanded the defendants at the Olokuta Correctional Centre, pending the outcome of DPP’s advice.

She adjourned the case till April 4, 2021.

This post first appeared on Saharareporters.com

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