LAWRENCE ADEDAPO
V.
THE STATE
THERESA NGOLIKA ORJI-ABADUA, P.J.C.A. (Delivered the Leading Judgment): The Appellant was convicted of rape and sentenced to seven years imprisonment by the Ekiti State High Court in Charge No. HAD/24C/2014, from the 23rd day of January, 2017 when the judgment of the lower Court was delivered. By the Information dated the 26thNovember, 2014 and filed before the trial Court, the Appellant was arraigned for the offence of rape contrary to section 2C and punishable under section 4(d) of the Gender-Based Violence (Prohibition) Law of Ekiti State, 2011. The particulars being that on or about the 7th November, 2013 at Oke-Erinmope Street, Ogbese, Ise-Ekiti, he raped one Grace Asaolu. After plea was taken in the matter on 2/11/2016, the charge proceeded to trial with the Prosecution calling four witnesses while the Appellant alone testified on his behalf. At the end, the trial Court delivered its judgment on 23/1/17 and found the Appellant guilty and then sent him to a penitentiary for seven…