-As Court Sentences Perpetrators to 14 Years
By: Shallon S. Gonlor |
shallonsgonlor@gmail.com
NIMBA COUNTY, Liberia — The Specialized Sexual Offenses Division Court of Nimba County’s 8th Judicial Circuit in Sanniquellie has adjudged guilty and sentenced two defendants, 33-year-old Saturday Leayine and Enoch Wogbe, 25-year-old, to fourteen (14) years imprisonment for gang rape against a 23-year-old woman.
The court’s final ruling was handed down on Tuesday, March 17, 2026, based on a plea bargain agreement executed by the State and Public Defense Counsel, with the consent and acknowledgement of the convicts. The judgment stemmed from Monday, February 23, 2026 hearing of the case, when the defendants confessed and pleaded for forgiveness following their arraignment and the reading of the indictment in open court by the clerk.
Through their counsel, Saturday Leayine and Enoch Wogbe voluntarily admitted to the crime, requested leniency, entering into the plea bargain agreement in accordance with the law. In his ruling, Resident Circuit Judge Musa S. Sidibey took judicial notice of the court’s records, including an eleven-count agreement, specifically count number five.
Count five states that the parties acknowledge and understand that the government of Liberia will recommend a fourteen (14) year imprisonment sentence, with a suspended sentence term of four (4) years, including time already served in pretrial detention.
The court, citing section 16.4.4 of the Criminal Procedure Law as amended August 2022, said the convicts will serve ten (10) years imprisonment, after which they will be released to serve the remaining four (4) years on probation under the Ministry of Justice’s Division of Probation supervision in their community.
The Grand Inquest for Nimba County, sitting in its November Term of Court, A.D. 2025, found probable cause to believe that defendants Enoch Wogbe and Saturday Leayine committed the crime of gang rape against private prosecutrix (L.S.), violating Title 26, Chapter 14, Subsection 14.70 of the Liberian Penal Law. Gang rape is strictly classified as a first-degree felony under Liberian law, as established by an amendment to the New Penal Code approved in December 2005 and published in January 2006.
According to the Ministry of Justice indictment, on November 5, 2024, at approximately 4:30 P.M. in Garplay Town, Nimba County, defendants Enoch Wogbe and Saturday Leayine allegedly jumped on the 23-year-old survivor (L.S.), forcibly removed her clothes, and sexually abused her. The indictment states that the Liberia National Police’s Women and Children Protection Section found that the defendants covered the woman’s mouth, took her to a room in the Garplay Town Pahlavi Hut, and sexually abused her.
A copy of the prosecution’s indictment states that after Saturday Leayine’s wife alerted others to the alleged assault, Enoch Wogbe took the survivor to a secondary crime scene in the bush and had sexual intercourse with her, while Leayine fled the initial crime scene. During police interrogation, Saturday Leayine admitted being present at the Pahlavi hut with the survivor and claimed she was taken to a secondary crime scene by Enoch Wogbe.
Dedendant Saturday Leayine also confirmed the survivor’s clothes were with his wife, Princess Saturday, but denied sexual contact. After the alleged assault, the survivor was rushed unconscious to Saclepea Comprehensive Health Center in Nimba County, then transferred to Jackson F. Doe Medical Hospital in Tappita for further treatment and hospitalization.
