Jalaludeen Zakari, a head teacher in Burra village, Ningi Local Government Area of Bauchi State, has been sentenced to 11 years imprisonment for fingering one of his pupils.
The sentence was pronounced by the Presiding Judge of Bauchi State High Court No. 11, Justice Nana Fatimah Jibrin while delivering judgment on the case brought against the convict, reports Saturday Tribune.
It was reported that Jalaludeen Zakari’s victim, a 6-year-old girl, was in the school to undergo a screening for admission but ended up being defiled by the convict who held her for hours after official school closing hours.
Barrister Dayabu Ayuba, the Prosecuting Counsel l, a State Counsel with the Ministry of Justice, disclosed this in an interview with Journalists in Bauchi.
He said that during the trial, he presented three witnesses including the victim who testified before the court.
According to him, “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.”
The Counsel added that, “Although he did not use his manhood on the girl, he fingered her and, in legal parlance, this is tantamount to rape.”
Dayyabu Ayuba said that the judgment was passed in July last year after Jalaludeen Zakari pleaded with the court to temper justice with mercy.
It may be recalled that sometimes in 2023, a High Court Judge in Bauchi also sentenced one Yusuf Bako to life imprisonment for raping a girl inside a mosque while two other men were handed 35 years imprisonment each for culpable homicide and removing the private part of a teenage girl in Jama’are.
