{"id":3093,"date":"2026-08-05T21:53:31","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T20:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=3093"},"modified":"2026-08-05T21:53:34","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T20:53:34","slug":"court-acquits-man-of-rape-charge-over-lack-of-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/?p=3093","title":{"rendered":"Court Acquits Man of Rape Charge Over Lack of Evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>By Christabel Otutu<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The High Court of Justice, Delta State, sitting in the Abraka Judicial Division, has discharged and acquitted one Ochuko Akiki of a one-count charge of rape, holding that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Delivering judgement on Tuesday, Justice Samuel Lokeke ruled that the prosecution did not establish the essential ingredients of the offence as required by law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Akiki had been arraigned on allegations that he unlawfully had carnal knowledge of a 10-year-old girl, Blessing Emayiku, on July 25, 2023, at Elizabeth Street, Abraka, contrary to Section 4 of the Delta State Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Law, 2020. He pleaded not guilty to the charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During the trial, the prosecution called only one witness, the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), Inspector Nwachukwu Subedetu, who testified on the investigation and tendered the defendant&#8217;s statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The defendant testified in his own defence and denied committing the offence, maintaining that he was falsely accused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In his judgement, Justice Lokeke observed that the alleged victim was not called to testify and that no medical evidence was tendered before the court to establish penetration or support the allegation. The court also held that the alleged confessional statement could not be relied upon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The judge stated that in criminal trials, the burden rests on the prosecution to prove every element of the offence beyond reasonable doubt and that suspicion, no matter how strong, cannot replace credible legal evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Justice Lokeke further criticised the manner in which the prosecution conducted the case, noting repeated adjournments and its failure to call key witnesses despite having listed them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the court, the prosecution failed to establish crucial elements of the offence, including penetration and the identity of the perpetrator through credible evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Consequently, the court resolved all doubts in favour of the defendant and ordered that Ochuko Akiki be discharged and acquitted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The prosecution has failed to prove the charge beyond reasonable doubt,&#8221; Justice Lokeke held before pronouncing the defendant not guilty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Christabel Otutu The High Court of Justice, Delta State, sitting in the Abraka Judicial Division, has discharged and acquitted one Ochuko Akiki of a one-count charge of rape, holding that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. Delivering judgement on Tuesday, Justice Samuel Lokeke ruled that the prosecution did not establish [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"iawp_total_views":8,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[218,116],"class_list":["post-3093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trendingnews","tag-court","tag-crime"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3093"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3095,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3093\/revisions\/3095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mediaconversation.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}