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rape as charged. The evidence of DW2 points to the persistent denial of the
allegation by the accused at the village level.
At the end of the trial, both sides waived their rights to address me.
Turning now to the substance of the matter before me, I must state that
before the prosecution can secure a conviction of a section 121 offence, they
must have established beyond reasonable doubts that: (a) there was carnal
knowledge of the Prosecutrix, (b) the prosecutrix did not give her consent
and, (c) the act was that of the accused person.
The testimony of the prosecutrix is that the accused had carnal knowledge
of her and without her consent. In THE STATE v. ERNES SANYANG
(HC/323/09 of 15/12/2011- Unreported) and THE STATE v. SALIFU NJIE
(HC/361/10 of 15/02/2012), this court dilated on the position of the law on
corroboration as it relates to rape and other sexual offence cases under our
laws where it was emphasized that section 180 (2) (a) of the Evidence Act,
makes it statutorily mandatory for the Court to seek for corroboration of
the evidence of the prosecutrix in sexual offence cases. While section 179 of
the Evidence Act, qualifies corroboration as any evidence that tends to
confirm the evidence of the prosecutrix on any material issue (R v. SEKUN
& Ors (1941) 7 W ACA, 10), it has been held that such corroborating
evidence must be extraneous to the evidence of the prosecutrix (R v.
WHITE HEAD (1929) I.K.B 99, 102).
There are two issues to be corroborated here; the act of sexual intercourse,
and the element of consent or the lack of it.