Justice Abiola Soladoye of the Ikeja Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court on Tuesday convicted and sentenced an Islamic cleric, Adam Farouk, to life imprisonment for defiling eight female pupils.
The Lagos State Government had arraigned the convict on eight counts bordering on sexual assault by penetration.
The court heard how the cleric defiled the pupils, aged six to 11, between November 2018 to February 2019 on Balogun Street, Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos.
Justice Soladoye held that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt the ingredients of the eight-count charge.
The judge described the cleric as morally deficient and an embarrassment to the Islamic faith, noting that the court did not fall for his lies.
She said that evidence of the pupils were corroborated as they identified the cleric as their teacher who penetrated their vaginas with his index finger.
Soladoye also held that evidence of the 10th prosecution witness, a midwife with the Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF), Mrs Oluchi Nwoke-Okoi, revealed that the pupils had vaginal injuries.
The judge also held that the defendant asked the pupils to turn their backs while he defiled them one by one.
She said: “The demeanour of the defendant is nothing to write home about. His stony face appears mischievous; he is extremely unkind and ruthless, fingering his students with his index finger.
“What an Islamic teacher who took undue advantage of poor students in Islam and messed around with their purity and dignity!
“He is meant to teach his students morals, discipline and values, but alas, the reverse was the case.
”The dignity and safety of our students must be cherished. Dirty Islamic teachers of his kind must be locked away and be made to pay for their dirty sexual indiscretions.
”The defendant is hereby convicted of all the charges and sentenced to life imprisonment on each of the eight counts, but the sentences shall run concurrently.”
Justice Soladoye also ordered that the convict should have his name written in the Sexual Offenders Register of Lagos State.
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