A 55-year-old, Yau Ibrahim, is to spend the rest of his life in a correctional centre after he was found guilty by a Minna Senior Magistrate Court judge, Angwan Daji, of unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor.
The presiding Senior Magistrate, Hajiya Hafsat Abdullahi Bawa Wuse, who passed the sentence on the convict, avered that the action of the convict has left an indelible mark on the life of the little girl.
Yau Ibrahim was earlier arraigned before the court on August 15, 2023, for having unlawful sexual intercourse with a six-year-old girl whom he infected with a sexually transmitted disease that has permanently damaged the health of the little girl.
The Police Prosecutor Inspector, Aliyu Yakubu Kuta, had called two witnesses during trial, who testified before the court as prosecuting witnesses one and two and gave vivid pictures of how the convict sexually abused the little girl.
Two exhibits were tendered during the trial, which included the confessional statement of the convict and a medical report from the Rayuwal Sexual Reference Centre Police Clinic in Minna. The police prosecutor then closed his case.
The Presiding Senior Magistrate, Hafsat Abdullahi Bawa Wuse, found him guilty on one count of unlawful sexual intercourse with a child, punishable under Section 26(2) of the Child Rights Law 2021 as amended, and she convicted him accordingly.
The convict had pleaded for leniency, but the senior magistrate asserted that, considering the magnitude of the offence committed by the convict, he deserved no mercy from the court.
She said that "the victim's health status as confessed by the convict himself, who confessed as contained in the medical report, and the stigma the victim will carry for life as a result of the convict action, the court hereby sentence you, Ibrahim Yau, to imprisonment for life for the offence of unlawful sexual intercourse with a child," she ruled.
The senior magistrate, Hafsat Abdullahi Bawa Wuse, was the first magistrate to invoke the full wrath of life sentence on a rapist in Niger State.