A 24-year-old Nigerian national, Gift Oladele, dragged a young woman into woodland and violently raped her has been jailed for 17 years after a judge described his actions as “truly depraved”.

Gift Oladele carried out the attack in Wrexham, North Wales, in September last year after approaching the victim, who was 19 at the time, as she walked home from a night out.

Oladele was convicted of rape and sexual assault at Mold Crown Court in March. He was sentenced on Thursday.

How the Attack Happened

The court heard that Oladele approached the woman and her friends outside a takeaway in Wrexham city centre. He initially appeared friendly and flirtatious before offering to walk home with her.

According to prosecutor James Coutts, Oladele accompanied the woman until they reached an isolated area, where he grabbed her by the mouth and forced her into the woods.

He then carried out a violent rape.

“She described being terrified,” Coutts told the court. “She did what she thought she needed to do to get through the attack.”

Oladele threatened to find and harm the victim if she reported the rape. He also threatened to take photographs of her and post them online.

Despite the threats, the woman returned home and immediately told her parents, who contacted the police.

Oladele was arrested the following day at his cousin’s home in Wrexham. Officers said he had attempted to hide a mobile phone, which contained searches relating to sexual attacks.

The court heard that Oladele had a “fascination in forced sexual abuse and rape” and that he appeared to be acting out a fantasy shown in the videos he had searched for.

Victim Describes Lasting Trauma

In a victim impact statement, the woman told the court that she continued to wake up from nightmares in which Oladele had tracked her down.

“I’m petrified,” she said.

She also described taking medication to prevent HIV infection after the assault and suffering long-term emotional and psychological effects.

“I feel ashamed, and somehow damaged, since what he did to me,” she said.

“The emotional impact has been very significant.

“I can’t go anywhere on my own anymore.

“I feel unsafe.”

Judge Simon Mills praised the woman for her courage during and after the attack.

“You showed exceptional courage during the incident and afterwards,” he told her.

Previous Conviction and Deportation Appeal

At the time of the Wrexham attack, Oladele was already on bail over another rape allegation in Manchester dating from November 2024.

He had also been jailed in 2022 for a sexually motivated attack.

The court heard that Oladele was later due to be deported to Nigeria but successfully challenged the decision on human rights grounds.

An immigration tribunal judge described the deportation case as “finely balanced”, acknowledging the seriousness of Oladele’s previous offence and the public interest in deporting foreign criminals.

However, the tribunal also considered his ties to the United Kingdom, where he had grown up, and the consequences of relocating to Nigeria.

The Home Office made two attempts to appeal the decision, but both appeals were rejected.

Judge Calls Defendant Dangerous

During sentencing, The Judge described Oladele’s actions as “truly depraved”.

“You subjected her to a terrible violation,” he said.

“You are a dangerous offender.”

The judge said Oladele posed an exceptionally high risk of harm to young women and had shown “absolutely no remorse whatsoever”.

The Home Office described the case as horrific and said Oladele’s imprisonment was the right outcome.

The victim’s account has highlighted not only the brutality of the attack but also the lasting fear and emotional damage that sexual violence can cause long after the offender has been convicted.

Nigeria’s federal lawmakers are putting the downstream energy sector under the microscope after audit records revealed that state oil firm NNPCL and private fuel marketers have piled up at least ₦432 billion in unpaid regulatory obligations.

The House of Representatives Public Accounts Committee (PAC) confirmed the formal probe this week, following persistent warnings raised in the Auditor-General’s 2023 and 2024 annual reports.

Regulatory Levies Left Unpaid

The mountain of debt has accumulated over a six-year period from 2017 to 2023, remaining largely uncollected despite the country’s tight fiscal squeeze.

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The liabilities consist of statutory fees meant to fund national energy infrastructure, including the 1% Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund, National Transport Average fees, Balancing Allowances, and lingering credit balances from import and coastal operations.

Audit records track a steep rise in default:

• The 2023 audit initially captured ₦392 billion in total arrears, with NNPCL carrying over ₦162 billion and commercial marketers responsible for ₦230 billion.
• The 2024 report revealed that private marketer debt alone had swelled to ₦432 billion, separate from state-owned NNPCL liabilities.
• Regulatory data from the NMDPRA confirms that 146 companies affiliated with DAPPMAN and MEMAN owed ₦327 billion by 2025.

No Hiding Place for Defaulters

PAC Chairman, Rep. Bamidele Salam, made it clear that parliament expects compliance from corporate leaders, issuing a firm directive against corporate stonewalling.

Salam emphasized that the committee will scrutinize why statutory revenues were permitted to sit idle without vigorous enforcement from the NMDPRA. Defaulters will be forced to present audit trails detailing every transaction, outstanding balances, and proof of any remittances made to date.

For lawmakers, the objective is unambiguous: plug commercial leakages, enforce fiscal discipline, and recover every outstanding naira owed to the federation.

Parts of the nation’s capital have once again been plunged into darkness following an early-morning equipment failure at the Apo Transmission Substation on Wednesday.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) confirmed the outage, attributing the disruption to the tripping of a 100MVA TR4 power transformer at its 132kV/33kV facility. Preliminary findings trace the failure to an oil spillage on the transformer’s red-phase High Voltage (HV) bushing, which forced four critical 33kV feeders, H31, H33, H35, and H37 offline.

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In an official public notice, the transmission utility stated that technical teams are already mobilized on-site:

“The Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN, hereby informs the public that the 100MVA TR4 transformer at the 132/33kV Apo Transmission Substation tripped in the early hours of today. Our maintenance crew are already carrying out a detailed investigation on the transformer to ascertain the exact cause of the tripping, to enable us effect repairs and restore the transformer.”

Following the grid disruption, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) confirmed power losses across several major districts, including the Apo Legislative Quarters, Lokogoma, and Apo Resettlement.

The latest breakdown adds to a pattern of recurring supply interruptions across Abuja, coming just days after scheduled maintenance works left residents grappling with low generation and prolonged blackouts.