Posted by By IBRAHIM BARDE, Kano on
An eight-year-old girl staggers home bleeding from her private part and barely able to walk the short distance from the roadside to her house. Subsequent medical examination says she has been raped. At her age, the tot does not know what ‘rape' means but she knows that ‘Mallam did it to me'.
An eight-year-old girl staggers home bleeding from her private part and barely able to walk the short distance from the roadside to her house. Subsequent medical examination says she has been raped. At her age, the tot does not know what ‘rape' means but she knows that ‘Mallam did it to me'.
The ‘Mallam' is her Quranic teacher who has denied any such act. But the father would have none of it.
And so, an Islamic teacher said to have been defiling underage girls under his tutelage is now to face judgement according to the dictates of the Sharia legal system. He has been dragged before the Upper Sharia Court in Fagge area of Kano for serial raping, where he is expected to tell all he knows about the little girl's uncommon foot-steps on that fateful day in May, 2005.
The teacher, Mallam Bashir Inusa (alias Danliti) is accused of systematically and religiously raping several of the little female children, numbering over 100, entrusted to him to teach them Quranic recitation.
However, relations of the accused teacher, who were reluctant to speak on the matter, are alleging a set-up, insisting that there was no such rape and that the tailor-cum-Quranic teacher is as pious as they come.
But Saturday Sun gathered that the alleged brazen manner in which someone had been taking the virginity of the small girls in the mallam's custody sent shock-waves down the spines of parents and guardians of the children - most of whom were taken unawares by the alleged perversion in the home of a man who was supposed to be a man of God.
Rather than exposing their wards to unlawful canal knowledge, the parents and guardians had thrown down their guards, thinking that whatever that was going on at the preccints of the Quranic school was tailored towards imparting their kids with a good moral and religious upbringing. But they were mistaken: An evil man (may be not the teacher) had turned the girls among the pupils into sex toys with whom he allegedly satisfied his phenomenal libido.
Exposed
Saturday Sun gathered on good authority that the alleged paedophile had continued with this mass rape of innocent children without anyone suspecting, until luck ran out on him on May 30, 2005, when he picked on eight-year-old Sadiya Usaini. Incidentally, Sadiya was the daughter of a neighbour at their Ari Road, Fagge 'C" residence.
'Mallam" allegedly did it to the girl and warned her against telling anybody. He was even said to have threatened to slaughter her with a knife if she did.
Of course, the girl was scared enough not to want to tell anybody, but the way the rapist at the Quranic school forced himself into the little girl on his bed left her brutally wounded. She could barely walk after he dropped her off with his bicycle. 'Her mother saw her walking back home in pains, her legs apart! On enquiry, she told her that her Mallam did it to her and warned her not to tell anybody", Mallam Usaini M.Y. Abdullahi, father of the violated little girl, revealed to Saturday Sun.
Quranic teachers unaware of what happened
Abdullahi who said his daughter was severely wounded by the hefty rapist had actually taken her to confront the man they most suspected. But the teacher has denied having sex with the little girl, at least her father confirmed that much. He said his brief with the children stopped with teaching them the Quran and guiding them along the path of Allah.
He tells Saturday Sun what transpired: 'Her mother seized her by the hand but my daughter was frightened and when she removed her pants, there were blood stains everywhere and just then, she burst out crying. When I returned home, I saw her in such a pathetic situation. I did not know what to do but somehow, I counselled against taking the law into our hands because what this did to us is very painful. We asked Sadiya to lead us to the person who mangled her private part in such a way and she led us to her Quranic recitation teacher who was now in his tailoring shop. We asked him what have you done to our daughter, he said nothing but my daughter pointed him out and said he did it with other members of their school and mentioned names such as Ummi, Amina, Zainab, Aisha, among others".
One of the victims is said to include the daughter of a former BBC correspondent. Abdullahi confirmed this but insisted he did not want to mention names - to protect the minors.
'I don't want to mention their names because it may cause them embarrassment, only the names of the little girls mentioned are okay. Don't put down the names of their fathers; even at this, some parents who knew that the ***(man) has equally destroyed their daughters preferred to remain unnoticed, saying it is shameful to expose themselves and their daughters to ridicule. But I have chosen to bring out my daughter because it is wrongful and I want it to be on record as a way of protecting the image of my daughter before her future husband who may wrongly think that she lost her virginity to prostitution or pre-marital sex which is very unIslamic!" he said, his voice breaking off.
Arrest and persecution
Mallam Abdullahi said he reported the matter at the Fagge Police Division but that the case dragged because some people were trying to quash it.
Hear him: 'We reported him to the police and he was arrested on June 10, 2005. The matter was charged to Upper Sharia court in Fagge, the case would have been taken there earlier but due to the influence of the big shots in Fagge … There was a lot of pressure on me to forgive and forget. They even went to the Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital, where we had gone for medical certification and confirmation of the rape, to pull strings to prevent us from getting the medical report which could enable us institute a case against him. At the same time, the (alleged) rapist's mother and sisters came and reigned insults on me and threatened me…. My house was mysteriously burnt down by unknown people.
Although the case is now in court, Saturday Sun sought to know from Abdullahi why he would not now relax and wait for justice to take its course, even as he was reminded that whoever he was accusing in the rape of his daughter remained innocent until pronounced otherwise by the court, the man however expressed another fear.
According to him, 'the boy is related to influential traditional and political leaders in the area and all of them have come to tell me to forget about the case. Nobody said anything on how and what becomes of my daughter … who is under going a traumatic period. Nobody said anything regarding how the boy could be punished, to stop him from destroying people's daughters. In fact, when we reported him at the police station, he was not detained and when he was taken to the court, he spent a day in detention and was released. He is now a free man... He is banking on his background - his parents are traditional and political leaders in the place. What can we, the commoners, do?"
I leave everything to God
The aggrieved father said that his most painful heartache is that he is now seen as a sort of trouble maker, even as the alleged defiler of his tot is roaming free and still allowed to carry on with his teaching.
'All I am after is to save the name of my daughter and leave the suspect to God. Can you believe me that he is still allowed to teach the children Quranic recitation? Go to Fagge, you will find him there! My God! why has our society degenerated into an abyss? he lamented.
Saturday Sun investigation, however revealed that there was no order stopping the accused from carrying on with his teaching, especially as he had not been found guilty by any court - civil or Sharia.
Table turns
The pain of living with the raped girl and not getting justice may not be all that Abdullahi and his wife have to face. He says he suddenly has the burden of proof for the alleged rape.
'Having manipulated things at the hospital and having pressured me to slow down, they were now challenging me to produce medical report to show that my daughter was indeed raped by their son", Abdullahi said.
He has, however, managed to pull out of this dead end. Hear him: 'I was momentarily stranded. I rushed back to the hospital but was told that the doctor had been transferred to an unknown place. Undeterred, I mustered courage and went to see the medical director of the hospital, Dr. Wali, and reported all that happened to him. Luckily for me, he is a good Muslim and one of the few men around who have conscience and always want the truth to be told. I am sure, those big men in Fagge must have come to put pressure on him but he insisted that the report of the investigation into my daughter's private part must be made public. I can't thank him enough, because if he was like those who live on falsehood, we would have been stuck".
The aggrieved father said that it was at this point that the case was eventually transferred back to the police to prepare fresh case file for the case.
The little girl's story
In an interview with Saturday Sun, little Sadiya recalled the much of the gory event as she could: 'That day was the second day that he did it to me. He also did it to Ummi. He brought out a knife and threatened to cut us into pieces if we tell anybody," she said, suddenly beginning to cry.
Medical report
The contents of the medical report, entitled - RE: SADIYA USAINI ‘F' 8 YRS OLD which was signed by one Dr. Nura Idris and made available to Saturday Sun reads: 'The above named eight-year-old girl was presented to hospital around 11:30pm on 1/6/05. She was said to have been raped by her Arabic School teacher. He was said to have used his finger first and later inserted his penis into the vagina. He threatened her not to tell any body.
VAGINA EXAMINATION: Grossly inflamed vulva and some bruises, torn hymen, whitish discharge, no bleeding.
IMPRESS: possible rape .."