2 teachers bag 22 years each for rape in Niger

Two Islamic teachers, Hassan Bilyaminu and Abdullahi Bilyaminu have been sentenced to 22 years jail term by a Minna Chief Magistrate Court II for defiling four minors in an Islamic school.

Chief Magistrate, Hauwa Baba Yusuf, who presided over the case, convicted them on two count charges bordering on sexual assault and act of gross indecency.

The state police command, last week, while parading the suspects said police operatives attached to Maitumbi division arrested one Hassan Bilyaminu aged 25yrs and Abdullahi Bilyaminu aged 23yrs, who are teachers of Tsangayan Mallam Bilya, Tudun Natsira, Maitumbi.

“The suspects allegedly raped and fingered four of their female Islamiya students aged 6-11yrs. The girls were lured from the study ground to the suspects' room for the sexual act. During interrogation, the suspects confessed to have fingered the victims,” the Police said.

Also, the First Information Report (FIR) made available in court by the police prosecutor, Sergeant Bello Mohammed, noted that the offences were punishable under Section 285 of the penal code law, as well as Section 19 (2) of the Child’s Right Law of Niger State, 2010.

The charge read in part: “That on the 2nd of August, 2020, one Lawal Idris of Tudun Natsira Area of Maitumbi in Minna, represented three others, and reported that on 31st of July, 2020, you Hassan Bilyaminu and Abdullahi Bilyamiu lured four of the girls whose ages range between 6 and 11, pupils of your Islamiyya, into your house and used your fingers to rub and inserted them into the minors’ private part one after the other.

“During police investigation, you confessed to the commission of the crime. You are hereby suspected to have committed the above offences.”

Both suspects pleaded guilty before the court and craved clemency of the law, saying they were tempted by the devil.

In her judgment, the chief magistrate said the accused persons had described how they perpetrated the act by luring the innocent girls and inserting their fingers into their private parts.

"This act is indeed grossly indecent and an assault that will leave a permanent and gruesome memory in the minds of these little girls. One wonders what people like the convicts derive from assaulting and defiling little girls,” she lamented.

The judge then sentenced them to 22 years imprisonment each.