Man, 47, gets life jail for raping 8-year-old girl

A Family Court sitting in Calabar, in  Cross River State  Wednesday, sentenced a 47-year-old man, Ita Okon, to life in prison for raping an eight-year-old girl.

Okon, the judge, Blessing Egwu held further should also pay N1 million compensation to the eight-year survivor.

The penalty according to the Judge would serve as a deterrent to those thinking of carrying out such a heinous crime in future.

Violence Against Persons Prohibition (VAPP) Law (2015) domesticated in Cross River in 2021, prescribes life imprisonment for any person convicted of rape.

Principal Counsel of the Basic Rights Counsel Initiative, the NGO that secured the conviction, James Ibor, hailed the judgment, saying violence against women and girls must stop.

The judgment he said was a triumph of good over evil, especially in the fight against rape and other Sexual and Gender-Based Violence
in the state and the nation at large.