A 28-year-old motorcyclist, Kingsley Emem Obioffiong, was today sentenced to 28 years in prison, with hard labour, for raping a 15-year-old girl in Akpautong, Esit Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. 

Obioffiong who is from Akpautong, was convicted by a State High Court sitting in Eket, on a two count charge of abduction and rape.

While the Presiding Judge, Justice Nsemeke Daniel in his judgement, sentenced Obioffiong to seven years in prison on count one, he jailed him for 21 years in count two, with the term running  concurrently starting from 1st of June 2016, when he was arrested. 

The incident occurred on 27th May, 2016, when the 15-year-old girl, Miriam (surname withheld by me) joined other school children for the celebration at Uquo Township Stadium. 

At the end of the event, Miriam and one other female student, picked a motorcycle operated by the convict who instead of taking them to their destination in Ekpene Obo, forcefully took the girls through a bush track to his residence in Akpautong, where they were gang raped by five men for three good days without food. 

A medical report submitted before the Court showed that one of them, Miriam had wounds and blood in vagina because of the force sex. 

The medical expert, Dr. Emmanuel Iren who is the prosecution witness in the matter, said he discovered "tenderness at the lower part of her abdomen called hypogastrum, bleeding in the vulva of the vagina and bruises at the vulva. The bleeding was from the lateral fornis and not the cervix, thus confirming that the bleeding was caused by a tear of the lateral fornis and not from menstruation."

The convict had the Court that "it is true that I raped her. After having sweet sex with her, I urinated inside her body. She stayed in my house for three days. I do not know her name. I just met her at Esit Eket Stadium during the Children's Day. She was so sweet and tight."

Justice Daniel said "in all these, the girl was screaming, shouting and crying for help but none came her way till the accused walked out of the room in the night of 29th May, 2016 in annoyance threatening to go and bring more people to join to rape her since she was shouting on the bed. It was then that Miriam had the chance to escape and ran to one woman's house who hid her till morning, before escorting her out to the road to take a bike to her parents house."

The judge said Obioffiong in his evidence, who during trial within trial, stated that he never knew the victim before the date of the incident, however said during the main trial, that Miriam was his girlfriend since 2015.