The Kwara state high court sitting in Ilorin has sentenced three students to prison for conspiring and gang-raping a cousin of one of them.
Omotosho Yahaya — a cousin of the victim; Mustapha Ahmed, and Mustapha Ridwan, are students at an undisclosed tertiary institution in the state.
Yahaya, the first defendant, was said to have asked Ahmed and Ridwan, his friends, to join him in raping his cousin while she was in the room.
On Monday, Adenike Akinpelu, the presiding judge, sentenced the trio after they were convicted on two counts of criminal conspiracy and rape of the victim.
The court sentenced them to five years imprisonment each for rape and two years each for criminal conspiracy.
The sentences, expected to run concurrently, include an additional N50,000 fine to be paid by each of the defendants.
“The confessional statements of the defendants are clear, unambiguous and equivocal contrary to the argument of their counsel. The contents of the statement of the defendant are consistent with other evidence before the court,” the judge held.
“No woman in her right senses will consent to and allow three men to have sex with her.
“Exhibit 1 (a plank) recovered from the scene of crime attested to the fact that the victim was threatened and raped, coupled with other tests from a government hospital conducted on her.”
The judge also dismissed claims by the defendants that they raped the victim because she was owing them as a “fairy tale”.
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