Court Arraigns Osun Cleric Who Raped Teenage Girl

A Magistrate court, sitting in Ede, on Thursday has arraigned an Osun-based Islamic cleric, Habeebulah Abdulrahman, who raped a 16-year-old.

The cleric was arrested on Monday and detained by the Osun State Criminal Investigation Department (CID).

It was reported on Monday that Mr Abdulrahman (popularly known as Al-Edewy) raped the victim, a student of his Islamic school in Ede, a town in Osun State.

The suspect who did not deny sleeping with the girl, claimed he married her a day before the ‘first rape incident’, but failed to provide any evidence of marriage as the girl and her family debunked the marriage claims.

However, the cleric was arraigned on a three-count charge of abduction of a young girl to an unknown destination to have carnal knowledge of her and indecent assault by touching.

The cleric was granted bail with the condition of providing a level 12 civil servant who owns a landed property- a condition which he met.

He was freed on Thursday.

Meanwhile, the victim’s lawyer, Abdulrasheed Maisolati, stated that the police did not other complaints of the family in the criminal charges, “because of the move by the suspect’s family to reach out to the family of the victim.

“We decide not to object to see how apologetic and remorseful he will be,” he said.

He noted that although Mr Abdulrahman had approached the family of the victim for an out-of-court settlement, the family kicked against “the exclusion of rape and child defilement from the charges.”

“If he fails to do the needful, we can… The family has their own terms of settlement. He was the one who approached them for an out-of-court settlement.

“They (victim’s family) are not okay with the charges. All we can do is to file a petition and copy the necessary quarters.”