Case against man and others ‘supplying women to bandits’ adjourned 

Precious Yusuf 

Justice Kabir Dabo of the High Court in Zaria, Kaduna State, has  adjourned the hearing of a suit filed against Muslim Abubakar and four others, charged with supplying woman to bandits for sexual pleasures until November 9th. 

The police charged Abubakar, his girlfriend, Fatima Jibril and Maryam Abubakar, a housewife  with criminal conspiracy, aiding and abetting kidnapping and attempt to commit kidnapping contrary to sections 59, 248 (1) and 247 (1) of the Penal Code.

The Prosecution Counsel headed by Ms. Lois-Diana Mamman said the case had been slated for hearing, however, the prosecution was not ready to go on with the case as they were yet to get their witness. 

Mamman applied for an adjournment to enable the prosecution to produce its witnesses.

The counsel for the defendant,Mr. Kamaludden Umar, opposed the application for adjournment.

Umar urged the court to put it on record that several adjournments had been made at the instance of the prosecution.

He begged the court to discharge the defendants or in alternative admits them to bail.

In his ruling, Justice Dabo refused the application to discharge the defendants.

Justice Dabo said that the defendant would be granted bail in the event the prosecution fails to present its witnesses by the date of the next trial. 

According to the First Information Report (FIR) earlier filed at the Chief Magistrate Court in Zaria, the suspects were arrested on Dec. 21, 2021.

The prosecution alleged that Mrs. Abubakar had confessed that she had been ”supplying” women, including her own daughters and nieces, to the bandits for sexual pleasures.

Abubakar said her clients paid N20,000 and that the women were being ferried to the forest on motorbikes.

Another woman, Jummai Ibrahim, was arrested on the suspicion that she had been engaging in an affair with the bandits’ kingpin in the forest.

The syndicate was exposed when the girls they had earlier procured for  the criminals in the forest did not return.