A Muslim cleric, Abdulsalam Salaudeen, has been arrested by operatives of the Lagos State Police Command for allegedly defiling a 5-year-old girl.
In a video presented to the Lagos commissioner of police, Imohimi Edgal, the 43-year-old cleric, identified as Abdulsalam Salaudeen, was caught raping the girl who was supposed to be learning from him.
In a statement released on Wednesday, January 2, 2019, police public relations officer, CSP Chike Oti, said the commissioner was saddened by the incident and has ordered a detailed investigation.
The statement read, “On
Friday, December 28, 2018, a good Nigerian visited the headquarters of
the Lagos State Police Command with a video evidence of an Islamic
cleric, aka Alfa, who was having anal sex with a five-year-old girl that
he was supposed to be teaching Islamic studies. The complainant sought
audience with the state Commissioner of Police.
“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 the
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. Upon seeing himself captured like an actor in a
movie, the suspect broke down in tears and owned up to the crime. He
later gave his name as Abdulsalam Salaudeen, a 43-year-old man and
resident at 16 Awoyemi Street, Igando Road, Ikotun, Lagos.”
While commending the courageous act of the
informant, the police boss warned parents and guardians to keep constant
watch over their children and wards as nobody could be trusted.