JOSEPH OLUBUNMI KAYODE OYEWOLE, JCA (Delivering the Leading Judgment): This is in respect of an appeal against the judgment of the High Court of Kogi State, Lokoja Judicial Division sitting as Family Court coram Hon. Justice A.O. Salihu, Judge, Olumoko Sunday Adeniji (assessor 1) and Amin Hajarat A. (Assessor II) delivered on the 26th April, 2023 wherein the Appellant was convicted of the offence of raping a child and was sentenced to life imprisonment.
The antecedent facts are quite straightforward. The Appellant, a neighbor and co-tenant of the mother of the victim, in the same house, had entered the common bathroom where the victim who was then eleven years old was having her bath and forcefully had canal knowledge of her. Seeing that the victim was bleeding from her private part, the Appellant then called the victim’s mother on the phone to return home as her daughter was ill. The victim was taken to the hospital where she pointed to the Appellant as her assailant. The Appellant di…