A cleric named Adam Farouk was sentenced to eight times life in prison for sexually abusing and assaulting eight students.
The clergyman was found guilty and given a sentence on Tuesday for defiling the students in his class, who ranged in age from six to eleven, by an Ikeja Sexual Offenses and Domestic Violence Court.
According to Justice Abiola Soladoye, the prosecution established the elements of the eight-count sexual assault by penetration accusation against the cleric beyond a reasonable doubt.
The priest, according to Soladoye, is morally lacking and a disgrace to the Islamic faith, and the court did not fall for his lies.
She claimed that the students’ testimony was verified since they admitted that the cleric was their teacher and that he had poked their vaginas with his index finger.
Soladoye also held that evidence of the 10th prosecution witness, a midwife with the Women at Risk International Foundation (WARIF), Mrs Oluchi Nwoke-Okoi, revealed that the pupils had vaginal injuries.
The judge also held that the defendant asked the pupils to turn their backs while he defiled them one by one.
She said: “The demeanour of the defendant is nothing to write home about. His stony face appears mischievous; he is extremely unkind and ruthless, fingering his students with his index finger.
“What an Islamic teacher who took undue advantage of poor students in Islam and messed around with their purity and dignity!
“He is meant to teach his students morals, discipline and values, but alas, the reverse was the case.
”The dignity and safety of our students must be cherished. Dirty Islamic teachers of his kind must be locked away and be made to pay for their dirty sexual indiscretions.
”The defendant is hereby convicted of all the charges and sentenced to life imprisonment on each of the eight counts, but the sentences shall run concurrently.”
The judge also ordered that the convict should have his name written in the Sexual Offenders Register of Lagos State.