Three sisters are currently before a sharia court in Gusau, Zamfara State, for allegedly raping a 22-year-old man, Abdulrahman Suleiman, two months ago during Ramadan while the man was on duty at the state Ministry of Women Affairs.
The suspects, whose ages were between 19 and 23 years, were Yahanatu Ibrahim, Wasila Hassan and Rukkaya Hassan. The prosecutor informed the court that they were all residing in the Government Reserved Area (GRA) of Gusau metropolis.
When the case came up on Thursday, the judge adjourned it till November 13 to allow more witnesses to testify.
The case had been on since August. During the first court appearance, the prosecutor, Hashim Ibrahim, had told the court that the plaintiff, who is a member of the Boys Scout, was posted to the ministry as one of the security men. He also said that the three defendants went to the man on that fateful day in the morning before the commencement of the daily Ramadan preaching session which was usually held in the ministry and demanded he should take them to an office.
However on getting to the said office, the prosecutor said the ladies forcefully pushed him inside the office and removed his trousers and one of the accused ladies had oral sex with him. Thereafter, the court was told that the two other accused persons later had sex with him.
When the judge, Alkali Sanusi Muhammad Magami, asked the accused persons about the incident, they all pleaded not guilty.
The judge then adjourned the case to August 27, while the suspects were granted bail.
When the case came up on August 27, an interesting dimension was brought into the matter when a witness, Muawiyya Salisu, told the court that the ladies only held his manhood and this made the young man to faint.
Salisu disclosed that the ladies came to the Ramadan lecture hall playing music on their handsets and the man asked them to switch-off their phones which they refused.
He said about 20 witnesses were expected to appear and testify in the court.
The judge, for the second time, adjourned the case to September 10. He also granted bail to the accused persons without conditions.
Under the strict Islamic law (sharia) being observed in the state, if the ladies unmarried were found guilty of rape, the penalty would be 80 strokes of the cane plus one year jail term for each of them. However, if the ladies were found to have assaulted the man, they could be fined and sentenced to not less than six months imprisonment.
However, the mother of the ladies, Hajia Salame Hassan (60), insisted that her daughters were innocent. According to her “some people who witnessed the incident told me that my daughters were victimised.”