Judge Sentences Headmaster to 11 Years Imprisonment for Fingering Six Year old Girl

Paul Orude, Bauchi 

The Judge of Bauchi State High Court No. 11, Justice Nana Fatimah Jibrin has sentenced Jalaludeen Zakari, a headmaster, to 11 years imprisonment for fingering one of his pupils. 

The head teacher hailed from  Burra, Ningi local government area of the state.

Zakari’s victim, a six-year-old girl, was in the school to undergo a screening for admission when she was defiled by the head teacher who held the minor for hours after close of school. 

Barrister Dayabu Ayuba, the prosecuting counsel, disclosed during trial that he presented three witnesses including the victim who testified before the court. 

“The perpetrator asked his victim to stay back and dismissed all pupils without explaining why she had to stay while other pupils were sent home,” Ayuba, who is also a state counsel with the Bauchi State Ministry of Justice, said.

“Although he did not use his manhood on the girl, he fingered her and, in legal parlance, this is tantamount to rape”

Ayuba said the judgment was passed in July this year after Jalaludeen pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy. 

In the same vein, a high court judge in Bauchi sentenced Yusuf Boko to life imprisonment for raping a girl inside a mosque.

Two other men were handed down 35 years imprisonment each for culpable homicide and removing the private part of a teenage girl in Jama’are.