An Ikeja Special Offences Court on Friday sentenced a 38-year-old barber, Jobi Kayode, to 20 years in prison for defiling his 12-year-old neighbour.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that Justice Oluwatoyin Taiwo sentenced Kayode after finding him guilty of a charge of defilement on the strength of the complainant’s testimony and the medical evidence.

“The prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt and I hereby convict him on the offence of defilement, as charged.

“The instances of rape have become prevalent in our society and it is almost becoming an epidemic. The defilement of a 12-year-old neighbour, who trusted him as her neighbour, is heinous.

“The defendant is hereby sentenced to 20 years in prison, to be served at the Kirikiri Correctional Centre, with no option of fine. The sentence starts from today, November 8, 2019,” the judge said.

The complainant who was a Junior Secondary School One pupil while testifying during the trial, had said the convict had the habit of making lewd advances at her and showing her his manhood whenever she was heading home from school.

While being led in evidence by Mr F. O. Ligali, the lead prosecuting counsel, she said, “I usually close from school at 4pm from Mondays to Thursdays and 2pm on Fridays.

“Whenever I’m coming back from school, he (defendant) usually makes advances at me and sometimes brings out his penis and shakes it at me,” she said.

The pupil said that one day when she was opening the gate to her compound, the defendant approached her and told her he wanted to see her neighbour.

She said immediately he got into the compound, he overpowered and defiled her.

“He threatened me that if I should tell anyone about what he did to me, he would kill me,” she said.

Kayode, in his defence, denied defiling his neighbour.

“I had, at no time, visited the complainant’s compound. Their gate was always locked with a padlock,” he said.

Before the sentence was passed, Mr Saheed Sanusi, the defence counsel, in his allocutus (plea for mercy), had asked the court to temper justice with mercy.