Islamic cleric, Ero Lalijannah, others in court over assault on woman

A middle-aged lady, Medinah Shehu has dragged her father, Sodiq Shehu, an Islamic cleric, Shafihi AbdulRahman “Ero Lalijanah”; and one Ambali Abdulfatai before a Magistrate Court, sitting in Ilorin over the allegations of criminal conspiracy, assault to woman with intent to outrage modesty and wrongful confinement.

Medinah, accused her father of conspiring with the cleric to give her inhumane and degrading treatments then dumped her with Ambali, a student of the cleric, who allegedly abducted, assaulted and impregnated her.

The trio were docked before Magistrate Shade Lawal of the State Revenue Court.

During proceedings, the prosecutor, James Yakub, urged the court to remand the defendants.

He submitted that police investigation over the matter is still ongoing saying granting the defendants bail may hamper police investigation.

On his part, the defendant’s counsel, Barrister Hussein Folorusho, prayed the court to discountenance the submission of the prosecutor.

He said the court should not base his judgement on the mere information contained in the Police report saying the defendants, according to law, are still presumed innocent.

He added that the defendants are of traceable addresses saying they will provide reliable sureties if they are granted bail.

The court, in its ruling, admitted the defendants to bail while the matter was adjourned to 17th of August, 2020.

Meanwhile, the court had taken custody of the complainant and banned access to her including that of her own lawyers.

HOW IT HAPPENED

In a two-page petition made available to THE INFORMANT247 – and signed by two legal practitioners, Barr. Y.Y. Ajibade and Barr. M.K. AbdulKadir – narrating her ordeal, Medinah said her father was not comfortable with her religious beliefs and asked her to recant, which she refused. This however didn’t go down well with the father who together with the cleric, Ero Lalijanah dumped her with Ambali who abducted, raped and impregnated her.

The petition reads in part, “In the beginning, our client’s father beat her mercilessly and seized the veils with which she covered her body on several occasion. She was still hesitant; the father then took her forcefully to a remote Village called Alapa in a bid to give her grievous maltreatments.

“Our client felt sick and fainted many times which necessitated the man with which her father dropped her with to call the father to come and take her back. The father said the man should let her die, if she dies, he would send cloth for her burial. That man had to find another means to get our client back to Ilorin after 23 days of her stay in the Village.

“Not long afterwards, Alhaji Shafihi (Ero Lalijannah) with whom our client has no blood relationship with but who had sometimes ago lived in our client’s neighborhood surfaced,
confined our client with one other lady called Basheerah in his house for three days, tied them down and beat them to stupor with the knowledge of our client’s father. After the prolonged torture, it is unfortunate that their sole request still remained that our client and the other lady should recant their religious beliefs in the face of clear Constitutional provisions that guarantee freedom of religion. When our client refused to recant her belief, they forcefully took her back to the Alapa Village whereas they asked her to as a matter of compulsion, choose a spouse from the only ten men in the entire Village. Our client refused and some new sets of deprivation, ill-treatment, torture, force and assault started rolling out. Our client managed to get a phone and quickly texted a friend on the development. The friend informed some concerned individuals who went to the Village with some police men.

“The DPO, Alapa Police Station despite his keen interest to ensure that justice was done, could not proceed further as our client’s father had pleaded with our client before they went to the police station not to expose what was going on to the police, he however promised to stop the maltreatment, allow her choose the husband of her choice and let her have peace with her religious belief. Unfortunately, the whole promise was a trick to enable the father and his cohorts escape the wrath of justice at that time.

“Our client was thereafter brought back to Ilorin and forcefully taken to one Ambali Abdulfatai who was a student of Alhaji Abdulrahman Shafihi (Ero Lalijannah) who masterminded the whole thing without the knowledge, consent or approval of our client.

“The three of them are aware that what they did could not translate to marriage between our client and the said Abdulfatai but it was just part of the maltreatment packages as if we are in a lawless society. Our client cried tirelessly for help but could not be rescued. When Abdulfatai discovered our client was making contacts to escape, he took our client unaware in company of his brother to a remote village on bike at about 11 pm and got to the village around 1am in the midnight and confined our client there for several weeks.”

Medinah disclosed that after several failed attempts to have sexual intercourse with her, AbdulFatai later beat her, removed her veil, torn her cloths and raped her.

According to her, she is now pregnant for “unwanted total stranger”.

APPEAL

She urged the Commissioner of Police to investigate the case of assault, rape, and trafficking against her with a view to bringing the perpetrator to book .