A Shari’a court sitting in Minna, Niger State, has remanded an Islamic teacher, Mallam Yahaya Isah, of Maitumbi area, Minna, for keeping a housewife of his Islamiyya in his house for over a month without the consent of her husband.
The suspect was also accused of aborting the victim’s two-month pregnancy and implanted a family planning drug in her.
The whereabouts of the victim (name withheld) was said to be discovered by relations 35 days after she did not return from the Islamiyya school.
The suspect told the court that the woman had complained to him that her husband was not taking care of her and so he decided to assist with the consent of her family.
The victim’s family, however, denied his claim, saying that their daughter who was married for 13 years had never complained to them of lack of food.
The suspect was said to have taken the advantage of an intimate discussion with the victim’s husband who told him that his wife had a spirit that used to help solve his problems; hence he (teacher) wooed her by telling her he wanted to talk to her spirit.
He was said to have camped the woman in his house and used her as a spiritual healer for over a month.
The Khadi, Abdullahi Nasiru, told the suspect that investigation by the court revealed that a family planning drug was implanted in the victim’s hand; which he denied responsibility, and pleaded for forgiveness.
The suspect said the pregnancy was aborted on the directive of the spirit in the victim to stop the husband from maltreating her, adding that the spirit said the husband was planning to kill her.
In her narration, the victim, a mother of five, told the court that she did not know she was not in her husband’s house throughout her stay in her teacher’s residence, accusing the teacher and his wife of connivance to ruin her life.
After listening to both sides, the khadi, after ordering the accused to be remanded, adjourned the case to May 17, 2022.
