PROOF OF RAPE BY THE PROSECUTION EXAMINED
Before any person can be convicted for an offence of attempted rape in any part of Nigeria, the victim of the attempted rape through a prosecution lawyer must prove the following;
a. That the alleged rapist fully intended to have sexual intercourse with the victim of rape (victim).
b. That the forceful act of sexual intercourse was done without the consent of the victim or that the consent was obtained by fraud, force, threat, intimidation, deceit or impersonation.[9]
c. That the victim was not the wife of the alleged rapist.
d. That the alleged rapist had the criminal intention to have sexual intercourse with the victim of the attempted rape without the victim’s consent or that the alleged rapist acted recklessly not caring whether the victim consented or not.
e. That there is a high likely hood of penetration of the penis of the alleged rapist into the vagina of the victim.[10]
f. The state of the law is that the most essential ingredient of the offence of attempted rape is the outward intention of penetration, however slight.[11] See the cases of Ndewenu Posu & Anor. v. The State (2011) LEPLR, SC 134/2010, Idi v. State (2017) LPELR-42587(SC), Lucky v. State (2016) LPELR-40541(SC).
It has been noted that the condition in paragraph “E” has been expanded to cover situations in which women may attempt to rape or rape men or in which a rape may involve the use of an object. The Violence Against Persons (Prohibition) Act, 2015, a federal law that applies in the Federal Capital Territory and States of the federation that adopted it, encompasses the penetration of any aperture in any part of his/her body, including the mouth and anal. Unlike before, the expanded rule now allows a man to accuse a woman of attempted rape or rape.
