The Ondo State High Court in Akure has sentenced Dare Ojo to death by hanging for the rape and murder of 11-year-old Zainab Adeyemo along Ese/Irun-Akoko Road in Akoko North-East Local Government Area.
According to the prosecution, the crime occurred on 17 July 2020, while Ojo was transporting the victim on his commercial motorcycle to the market at Irun-Akoko.
During the trial, Zainab’s mother recounted the events leading to her daughter’s death.
She explained that she had hired the defendant, a commercial motorcycle rider popularly known as an Okada rider, to take Zainab from Ese-Akoko to the market.
“But when she didn’t see Zainab, she contacted her colleagues at the market only to be told that they didn’t see her,” the prosecution stated.
The victim’s parents reportedly contacted Ojo, who claimed he had dropped Zainab at the market. A community search later discovered her lifeless body.
Delivering the judgment, Justice Yemi Fasanmi said the accused was guilty based on the pathologist’s report from the Federal Medical Centre, Owo.
The tests revealed signs of a struggle, and that “the vagina of the deceased was forcefully penetrated.”
The judge also noted that the police investigator testified that the accused led them to the scene of the crime in a bush.
Although there was no eyewitness, Justice Fasanmi applied the Doctrine of Last Seen, observing that Ojo was “the last person who saw Zainab, as there was no other person who saw her after the accused took her away.”
Kolawole Oluiwa, Ojo’s lawyer, appealed to the court for leniency. When given the chance to address the court, the defendant pleaded for mercy.
The court sentenced Ojo to life imprisonment for the charge of rape under section 31(1), (2), and (3) of the Ondo State Child’s Right Law, 2007, and to death by hanging for murder under section 319(1) of the Criminal Code Cap 37, vol. 1, Laws of Ondo, 2006.
After the verdict, the defendant’s lawyer commended the court for its diligence.
Speaking to journalists, the prosecution counsel, Afolabi Bolanle, a director at the state Ministry of Justice and Administrative Secretary of the Ondo State Agency Against Gender Based Violence (OSA-GBV), stated that “all parties to the matter got justice.”
