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From Bamigbola Gbolagunte, Akure
An Ondo State High Court sitting in Akure, the state capital, has condemned a man, Dare Ojo, to death over the rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl, Zainab Adeyemo.
Ojo committed the offence on 17 July 2020 along Ese/Irun-Akoko road in Akoko North-East Local Government Area of the state while conveying the deceased on his commercial motorcycle to the market at Irun-Akoko.
The mother of the deceased had called Ojo, who was a commercial motorcyclist popularly known as Okada rider, to take the late Zainab Adeyemo from Ese-Akoko to the market at Irun-Akoko.
Justice Yemi Fasanmi in his judgment said the accused was guilty of the charges preferred against him based on the findings of the pathologist from Federal Medical Centre, Owo, who carried out tests on the remains of the deceased.
He said though there was no eyewitness account, he invoked the Doctrine of Last Seen.
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Dare Ojo was the last person who saw Zainab Adeyemo as there was no other person who saw her after the accused took her away.
When given opportunity to talk to the court, Ojo pleaded for mercy.
However, the court sentenced the accused to life imprisonment having found him guilty of the first charge, rape, punishable under section 31(1), (2), and (3) of the Ondo State Child’s Rights Law, 2007.
The court also condemned the accused to death by hanging having been found guilty of murder, an offence punishable under section 319(1) of the Criminal Code Cap 37, Vol. 1, Laws of Ondo, 2006.
