A 40-year-old Islamic cleric, Nurudeen Sadallah, has been arrested by the police for allegedly defiling a seven-year-old pupil he teaches Quran in Ogun State.
The girl had reportedly gone to a corner around the class last Saturday to urinate when Sadallah surfaced, covered her mouth and dipped his finger into her private part.
The minor was taken to the hospital the following day after her underwear was said to have been covered in blood and the bleeding didn’t stop.
According to reports, the girl’s father, who gave his name simply as Ibrahim, said that his daughter mentioned Sadallah while she was being treated at the hospital.
He said: “Her mum noticed she was bleeding from her private part since she came back from the Arabic class that Saturday. When I came back from work around 9pm that day, she told me to check our daughter’s private part. I saw blood there. I was shocked and wondered what could have caused it. My wife said the first pant she (the victim) wore was covered with blood and she had to change it.
“She wore a third pant before she slept but by the time she woke up, it was soaked again with blood. We took her to a hospital. As a doctor was treating her, she was screaming and saying ‘it is Alfa that did this o.’ My wife called the Alfa on the phone and was complaining bitterly.
“I then asked my daughter what happened. She said she went to a corner to urinate and while she was there, Alfa appeared; covered her mouth and dipped his finger into her private parts. The doctor confirmed that she had been defiled. She is seven years old and very smart. She couldn’t have lied against him if he didn’t do anything to her.”
But the suspect denied committing the crime, saying that he always looks after the pupils under his watch.
He said, “After I finished teaching them Quran, I told them to go perform ablution and prepare for Suhr prayer. I didn’t do anything to her. I have been teaching children Quran in that area for 12 years and I have never done anything like that.”
The state Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Abimbola Oyeyemi, who confirmed Sadallah’s arrest said the state Commissioner of Police, Lanre Bankole, had directed that the suspect be transferred to the command’s headquarters in Eleweran, Abeokuta, for further investigation and prosecution.
