It is an established practice in criminal law that though corroboration of the evidence of the complainant in a rape case is not a statutory requirement, it is, in practice, always looked for. In other words, it is now a well established practice, by the courts in Nigeria, that in cases of rape the evidence of the complainant must be corroborated. The nature of the corroboration must necessarily depend on the peculiar facts of each case. Where rape is denied by the accused the sort of corroboration the courts must look for is medical evidence showing injury to the private part of the complainant, injury to other parts of her body which may have been occasioned in a struggle, seminal stains on her clothes or the clothes of the accused or on the place where the offence is alleged to have been committed. Where the prosecution evidence is not sufficiently strong to warrant a conviction, it would be unsafe to convict merely on the accusation of the woman who alleges that she has been raped. The Judge must warn himself against the danger of convicting a man on such uncorroborated testimony. See lbeakanma v. Queen (1963) 2 SCNLR at 195; Reekie v. Queen (1954) 14 WACA 501.
— Katsina-Alu, JSC. Okon Iko v State (2001) – SC.177/2001