A 43 years old Muslim cleric, Abdulsalam Salaudeen, is in trouble for allegedly defiling a five-year-old female pupil placed in his custody.
The accused denied committing the offence before an Ikeja Chief Magistrate Court on Wednesday.
He was ordered to be remanded at the Kirikiri prisons, Lagos.
Chief Magistrate, Mrs Olufunke Sule-Amzat, ordered that he be remanded in the Kirikiri Prison, pending advice from the State Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP).
The accused, who resides at 16 Awoyemi Street, Igando Road, Ikotun, a Lagos suburb, was docked for defilement.
Police prosecutor, Insp. Benson Emuerhi, said that the offence was committed on Dec. 22, at Olorungbebe Mosque located at Iyana Ile-Oba, in Igando area of Lagos.
Emuerhi said that the accused is a popular Islamic cleric within the locale.
He told the court that the incident was reported by a neighbour at the Ikeja Police Command.
The accused was earlier arrested by operatives of the Lagos State Police Command.
In a video presented to the Lagos state Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi, the cleric, was caught defiling the girl who was supposed to be learning Islamic studies from him.
According to the Police Public Relations Officer, CSP Chike Oti, a neighbour to the accused had tendered to the Lagos State Police Command video evidence of the cleric having anal sex with his underage pupil.
“The CP, after watching the heart-rending video, directed the command’s undercover operatives attached to the State Intelligence Bureau to immediately arrest the culprit and hand him over to the gender section for a detailed investigation.
“The operatives went in search of the cleric and arrested him near a mosque in Igando area of the state.
“He was taken from there to the Gender Unit, where the officer-in-charge, ASP Abimbola Williams, confronted him with the video footage of him defiling the child by penetrating her anus and private parts,” Otti said
The offence, Emuerhi added, contravened Section 137 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2015.
Further hearing has been adjourned till Feb. 7 for trial.
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