A four-year wait for justice to serve its course is finally over as Abdulsalam Salaudeen, an Islamic cleric who raped a five-year-old pupil in Lagos in 2018, has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

According to Mirabel Centre, Nigeria’s first sexual assault referral centre, the Sexual Offences and Domestic Violence Court of Lagos handed Salaudeen the sentence on Wednesday.

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The court equally ordered Salaudeen’s name to be registered in the state’s sex offenders’ register.

Salaudeen, 43, committed the act at an Arabic school where he worked as an Islamic Studies teacher.

The teacher committed the offence on December 22, 2018, at a mosque premises in Igando, Lagos.

His actions would have gone unnoticed and unpunished if the matter had not been reported to the police five days after the incident.

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While reporting the matter, a complainant also provided the police with video evidence that showed Salaudeen, also known as Alfa, having anal sex with the female pupil.

Speaking with FIJ on the ruling, Nancy-Olive Tamuno, the communications manager at Mirabel Centre, said, “We hope this marks a change in the justice system and the beginning of harsher punishments for sex offenders.

“This ruling also gives more survivors hope that they can get justice.

“We also hope this serves as a deterrent to rapists and assaulters. The law will catch up to them and they will be punished.”