Three Islamic clerics held for fraud, serial rape

Three self-acclaimed Islamic clerics who specialised in defrauding unsuspecting members of the public have been arrested by the police in Ogun State.

The suspected fraudsters were also accused of having unlawful carnal knowledge of their female victims.

The suspects, Aliu Abdulfatai (50), Sule Adebayo (36) and Lekan Olokodana (31), were arrested following a report by one of their victims.

The state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Abimbola Oyeyemi, confirmed the incident yesterday.

The PPRO said a female victim (name withheld) reported at Adigbe Police Station that she was duped of N70,000 by the suspects and also raped by one of them.

Oyeyemi disclosed that investigation revealed that one of the suspects had used the proceeds of their fraudulent acts to build a private school in Ikorodu, Lagos State.

The police spokesman added that the suspects got in contact with the female victim, a marketer with real estate company, on the pretext that they wanted to purchase large expanse of land.

He said: “The complainant, who is a marketer with a popular property/real estate company, was said to be on marketing assignment when she came across the suspects who claimed to be Islamic clerics and indicated interest in purchasing large expanse of land which they claimed they wanted to use for construction of their mosque.

“There and then, they introduced the issue of special prayer to their victim from where they came out with seeing a vision that the victim is under a spell which needs special deliverance prayer to cast out.

“As a result of this, they succeeded in fraudulently obtaining the sum of N70,000 from her after they lured her into their house where one of them forcibly raped her.

“On the strength of her complaint, the DPO, Adigbe Division, CSP Augustine Opadile, detailed his detectives to go after these hoodlums and bring them to justice.

“Their efforts paid off when three among them were apprehended while waiting for the victim to bring money they demanded. One of them escaped.

“On interrogation, they confessed being fraudsters and that has been their means of livelihood. It was also revealed that one of them has used the proceeds of their fraudulent acts to build a private school in Ikorodu, Lagos State.”

Oyeyemi said the state Commissioner of Police, Bashir Makama, had ordered a full-scale investigation into the activities of the suspects with the view to charging them to court as soon as possible.