Kwara State Command of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), has apprehended an Islamic cleric in the state for allegedly beating one of his pupils into a coma.
The incident was brought to public notice by a Human Rights Lawyer, Aishat Temin, who alleged that the cleric, Moshood Alabi beat the pupil to a pulp for stealing some money from a piggy bank.
The legal practitioner disclosed that the incident happened at Alabi’s Quranic school during the weekend.
Speaking in a radio program aired on Diamond FM 88.7 on Sunday, Temin said the law “does not allow the cleric to beat the boy or give him the power to order his students to beat up another student”.
She said, “The cleric has no such power to beat the students in his Quranic school. If the student commits an offense, he can give him light punishment; he has no power to beat him to an extent of inflicting injury on him. He even has no power to order students to beat their fellow students.”
She further explained that the cleric, after beating the boy, also instructed three of the students to give the victim 10 strokes of cane, which made him fall into a coma during the punishment.
Reacting to the development, some of the contributors to the program also suggested that the government should organize refresher courses to enlighten owners of Quranic schools and lessons in the state.
The spokesman for the Kwara State Police Command, Ajayi Okasanmi, said the Police had arrested Moshood, adding that the arrest was carried out by officers of the Oloje Police Division after the case was reported.
It was gathered that the cleric took to his heels after the case was reported to the police by the National Human Right Commission, Kwara State branch. Okasanmi, while giving details of his arrest said, “Though the cleric was on the run after discovering that the student had gone into a coma, but our officers fished him out of his hideout”.
The PPRO said the boy is awake and recuperating at a private hospital in Ilorin. The case according to reports would soon be transferred to the Gender-Based Violent Unit of the Police Command in Ilorin.
Okasanmi said the cleric would be charged to court after the resumption of members of the Judicial Staff Union of Nigeria, who are currently on strike.
