Man Who Raped another Man Pleads he was drunk

Bestwood Chuckwuemeka, a 28-year-old man who was arraigned on Monday at a Magistrates Court in Abuja for sodomy has pleaded that he committed the crime under the influence of alcohol.

According to the police prosecutor, Cpl. Umar Mohammed, on August 8, a man from Gidan Mangoro, Abuja, reported to the divisional headquarters, Karshi, Abuja, of the alleged rape by the accused person. Mohammed said that the accused had sexual intercourse with the complainant on his bed when the complainant was fast asleep. This, the prosecutor said, was contrary to section 284 of the Penal Code.

However, in his response to the charges, when the charge sheet was read out, the accused pleaded not guilty. He said “I came back drunk from the night club and thought I was sleeping on the same bed with my girl-friend and I started romancing her.”

But the Magistrate, Nafisat Buba, said that alcohol should not be seen as an excuse for committing the offence, “Despite being under the influence of alcohol, the accused should not use that as an excuse to commit the crime,” she said. She however granted the accused bail in the sum of N200,000 with two sureties in like sum, saying that one of the sureties must be a civil servant on GL 09. The case was then adjourned till September 17 for further hearing.