Man bags 5 years jail for sodomizing minors

ASokoto High Court has sentenced a 30-yearold man, Lawali Bala of Rikina Village in DangeShuni LGA of Sokoto State to five years imprisonment with a fine option of N50,000 for sodomizing under 18 boys.

The accused was arraigned by the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons and other Related Offences (NAPTIF) on a 5-count charge bordering on procurement of persons and sexually abusing them through the anus.

When the charge was read to him, he pleaded guilty and begged for leniency and was sentenced accordingly by Justice Isa Bargaja.

Daily Trust reports that Bala, who hailed from Anka LGA of

Zamfara State, was said to have been in this illicit act for two years.

According to Bala, he was introduced into it by a fellow labourer in Niger and had not been able to stop.

He disclosed that he came to Rikina in search of greener pasture, even though his grandparents were indigenes of the area.

He told Daily Trust that he was sodomizing the children while they were sleeping as they used to spend their night together at the residence of one of his victims’ father.

Daily Trust learnt that he met his waterloo when one of the boys, who caught him in the act, reported him to his father.

“Then the people of the community handed me over to Hisbah and asked me never to return to the area again,” he said

One of the victims, a 13-yearold boy said, “There was a time I caught him loosening my trousers’ but I was afraid to tell my parents, thinking they would not believe me,” he said

The father of the boy said “I am betrayed because this is a person that I treated like a son. I sheltered him, fed him and even gave him clothes but look at how he paid me back.”