Justice Nana Fatimah Jibrin, the Presiding Judge of Bauchi State High Court No. 11, has sentenced Jalaludeen Zakari, a head teacher in Burra, Ningi Local Government Area of the state, to 11 years in prison for sexually assaulting one of his pupils.
LEADERSHIP reports that Zakari’s victim, a 6-year-old girl, had been at the school for an admission screening but became a victim of assault by Zakari, who detained her for hours after official school closing hours.
Zakari was said to have inserted his finger into the girl’s private parts.
Barrister Dayabu Ayuba, the prosecuting counsel and a state counsel with the Bauchi State Ministry of Justice, disclosed this during an interview with our correspondent in Bauchi.
Ayuba said that during the trial, three witnesses, including the victim, testified before the court.
“The perpetrator asked his victim to stay back, dismissing all other pupils without providing a reason for her extended stay. While she was left behind, the assailant subjected her to sexual assault, an act equivalent to rape in legal terms,” he said.
Ayuba said that the sentencing occurred in July of this year after Jalaludeen pleaded with the court for leniency.
In a prior 2023 report, LEADERSHIP detailed a separate high court case where a judge in Bauchi sentenced Yusuf Boko to life imprisonment for raping a girl inside a mosque.
Additionally, two other men were each sentenced to 35 years for culpable homicide and the barbaric act of removing the private part of a teenage girl in Jama’are.