A witness, Japhet Akawe, testified before an Ogun State High Court on Wednesday, detailing how a suspected armed robber, identified simply as Moses, allegedly raped his wife and threatened his family in the Sagamu area of the state.
Akawe, during the ongoing trial of Moses for alleged rape and armed robbery before Justice O. S. Oloyede, recounted how the defendant also allegedly stole his wife’s mobile phone and his brother’s motorcycle.
He narrated that on March 18, 2023, while he was away, his wife, sister, and brother were attacked at gunpoint by the defendant while harvesting cassava on their farm.
“On March 18, 2023, at about 3 pm, I received a phone call from my wife through my younger sister’s phone and she told me that she and my younger brother, Joseph and his wife had gone to the farm to uproot cassava. She told me that the defendant forcefully snatched her phone, dragged her to the bush, forcefully had sex with her, took her naked picture and put pepper substance on her face,” Akawe testified.
“I called my friend to take her to the clinic where she was treated. I called my wife’s phone number and the defendant picked it up and asked if I was not happy he had not kidnapped my wife before he ended the call. Afterwards, the defendant called me with a number and issued a warning that I should not call my wife’s number and the number he called with, or he would come for my family. I called my wife the next morning through my younger sister’s phone to go to the police station and report that a criminal had collected her phone so that if anything happened, they would not hold her responsible,” he continued.
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Akawe also detailed how the alleged theft of his brother’s motorcycle led to further distress. “On Thursday, March 20, 2023, the owner of the motorcycle which the defendant forcefully collected from my brother arrested my brother and took him to court. The court granted him bail, but I was not around so he couldn’t meet the bail conditions and was taken to prison. When I came back, I met with the owner of the motorcycle, negotiated with him and paid him the money for the motorcycle, then the case was struck out in court.”
He told the court that he reported the incident to the Sagamu Police Station, providing them with the phone number used to threaten him. Three months later, the number was tracked, leading to the defendant’s arrest.
Under cross-examination by the defence counsel, D. O. Efuwape, Akawe confirmed he had not met the defendant before the incident, but identified him through the threatening phone call.
Justice Oloyede adjourned the case to today, March 20, 2025, for the continuation of the trial.
