Man sentenced three years for raping six-year-old

Gift Meshack, 35, has been jailed for three years by a High Court in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State for defiling a six-year-old girl identified as Tamara.

Justice Nayai delivered the judgment on Friday after weighing the evidence against Meshack .

Nayai found Meshack guilty, explaining that any attempt to “have sex with a female counterpart without her consent amount to rape.”

 He lamented that the matter before the court involved a minor.

Nayai said the court found the accused person guilty of contravening the law, adding that the jail term would act as a deterrent to others.

 The prosecutor, Mr. Boy Endoni, had told the court that in July 2010, Meshack “had unlawful and indecent canal knowledge of the minor” at Etegwe-Epie area of Yenagoa.

He said Meshack committed the crime when his victim visited him.

 According to him, the accused person accosted his victim, fondled, kissed and dragged her to his bed where he violated her, an offence punishable under Section 146 of the Criminal Code.

He said Tamara’s mother became inquisitive when the victim complained about pain in her private part.

 “That was when she told her mother what happened,” he said.

Meanwhile, the National Anti-Corruption Volunteer Corps, on Monday appealed to the state Governor, Mr. Seriake Dickson, to order an investigation into the circumstances that led to the death of an 18-year- old girl, Imomoemi Esegi.

 Esegi was said to have been gang-raped and murdered by a group of unknown youths in Yenagoa.

The Coordinator of the group, Mrs. Elizabeth Egbe, in a petition made available to our correspondent asked Dickson to compel the police to probe the murder.

  Egbe said, “The victim was gang-raped to death on July 30, 2012 between 12 noon and 2pm inside a shop.

“The victim, who hailed from Agudama-Epetiama in Yenagoa Local Government Area of the state, was a computer operator at Sharon Ideal Home Furniture, Amarata.

 “She was expecting her first salary on July 30, 2012 when she was violently tortured and raped to death by unknown persons in broad daylight. The corpse was first discovered by her mother and her friend who paid her a visit at work.”