By Haruna Mohammed SALISU

YUSUF Bako, a 50-year-old resident of Yakubu Wanka Street in Bauchi metropolis has been arrested by police in Bauchi State Police for defiling a four -year-old minor, Kulu (not real name) inside a mosque at on Aminu Street in Bauchi metropolis.

Ahmed Mohammed Wakil, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and Bauchi State Police Public Relations Officer in a statement said the alleged rapist was arrested following a complaint by the minor’s guardian, Jamilu Abdullahi who reported how Bako lured the minor inside the mosque just to have canal knowledge of her.

The statement said the alleged that the ‘serial rapist,’ was  imprisoned twice- in 2001 and 2015 for raping other minors in  similar circumstances.

He was pardoned recently by the Bauchi  State Government on the eve of COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the statement, the police in launched a hunt  for Bako following an alarm raised by Jamilu Dahiru, a member of the Bauchi State House of Assembly.

The lawmaker informed the House during plenary that he received distress calls informing him of how the 50 -year-old man was apprehended after raping the minor in the Mosque along Aminu Street of Bauchi metropolis.

He said “by the time I rushed to the family of the victim, I found everybody crying. The mother of the girl was  crying.”

Abubakar Sulaiman, Speaker  of the House stated the position of the House during plenary on Thursday while reacting to the issue raised by Dahiru.

The Speaker, Abubakar Sulaiman said “prevalence of rape in the last couple of months in the state prompted the House to pass the Violence Against Person Prohibition bill into law to curtail the rising cases of rape in the state.”

The House unanimously agreed to set up a committee to ensure that the merciless rapist faced the full wrath of the law.

It also mandated the committee to also make sure that the rapist is punished within the confines of the law.