A Yaba Chief Magistrates’ Court has remanded a 24-year-old Islamic teacher, Mosediq Toheeb, for sexually assaulting a six-year-old pupil at a Quranic school.
The court presided over by Magistrate Patrick Nwaka, remanded the defendant who was arraigned on two counts of sexual violation preferred against him by the state police command, on Wednesday.
The police prosecutor, Thomas Nurudeen, told the court that the incident happened on May 7, 2023, at the University of Lagos Central Mosque.
According to Nurudeen, that was the second time that the teacher would defile the child.
The victim’s mother told the court that on the day of the incident, the child returned home from school with blood stains on her clothes and when asked what happened, she told her that her class teacher took her to a separate classroom, tied her mouth and hands and defiled her with a stern warning that she should not tell anybody.
According to the prosecutor, the offences committed are punishable under Sections 261 and 137 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State 2015.
The charge read in part, “That you, Mosediq Toheeb, on May 7, 2023, around 4pm at UNILAG Central Mosque, in the Yaba Magisterial District, did sexually assault one six-year-old female (name withheld), who lives at No. 26, Femi Adebule Street, Fola Agoro, in the Somolu area of Lagos, by inserting your finger into her vagina and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 261 of the Criminal Laws of Lagos State of Nigeria, 2015.”
Nurudeen prayed the court to remand the defendant for 30 days pending legal advice from the Directorate of Public Prosecution.
Toheeb’s lawyer, Patrick Onochie, pleaded with the court to consider the defendant who he claimed was a final year student of the University of Lagos and would be starting his final examinations in two weeks.
Magistrate Nwaka did not take the plea of the defendant but ordered that he should be remanded.
He said there was no document before the court to show that the defendant was a student and in his final year or about to begin an examination.
He ordered that the case file be duplicated and sent to the Director of Public Prosecution for legal advice and copies of his school documents attached to the case file.
He adjourned the case till June 19, 2023.
