By: Ade Kunle and Abdul Qudus, Lagos
NIGERIA’s foremost Islam news medium has launched an investigation into a petition alleging three individuals of posing as Islamic clerics on the social media application, Whatsapp, to sexually harass and deceive unsuspecting Muslim women.
The petition was brought to the iWitness NG’s attention by one Zhikrullah, through an electronic mail forwarded to editor@iwitness.com.ng
In the petition, the three persons indicted were Dr. Abdulrahman Yusuf (aka) Nifemi); Ismi Risqiyah and another person identified as Nafeesah.
Investigation by one of our correspondents identified Robiu Sulaimon, Aminah Fashola, one Zaynab from Lybia, Bimbo Coker from Lagos, Subomi (a friend to Fashola) and another lady Kafayat, residing in Osogbo as parties in the scandal.
The petition claimed that the alleged persons were known to always pose as Islamic clerics on Whatsapp, thereby “creating groups and seeking nude pictures of Muslim women in the name of spreading and preaching the religion (Dawah) to them”.
The iWitness NG investigation showed that the alleged persons were active users of Whatsapp.
When contacted, Yusuf denied the allegations and explained that he has got a lawyer to handle the case.
After being contacted on the telephone, both Yusuf and Risqiyah, who came for an interview, lamented that their personalities were being damaged.
Yusuf explained that the message was a vendetta against them.
According to him, he created the Whatsapp groups to enrich the Islamic knowledge of Muslims.
He subsequently explained that no nude picture was sent by him, saying, “A sister from Osogbo on the group sent the picture to me privately via WhatsApp and I complained bitterly about it. I was surprised that Sulaimon who is on the group began to say I am the one sending it. I don’t even know how he got to know about the private message sent to me by the lady. What is clear to me is that the picture was sent to me personally and I shunned the act immediately. I sense that Sulaimon might have connived with the sister to defame me.”
Speaking on the panel he faced, Apena said, “The panel was set-up by Sulaimon and I still honoured it but I was surprised with the kind of questions they were asking me like how many females have I slept with? I imagined what they took me for.”
On her part, Risqiyah said that “Sulaimon is too aggressive. He keeps condemning everything. I am on the group and nothing of such was sent to the group. I was surprised to see my name in the allegation all because I am not always supporting his aggressive stand on issues.”
When contacted, Sulaimon Roliu, wondered why Yusuf kept denying the allegation.
He explained to our correspondent in a telephone conversation that Yusuf had confessed to the allegations.
“The crisis started from a group called ‘Perfection of Muslims’. I do naseeha there as a scholar and people find it convenient to discuss with me. About three females reported the same case to me and I informed Yusuf privately. He constantly blames the weakness on shaytan. Part of the women involved is divorced and one is even a Christian.
“When he came to the panel, he was abusing us. He didn’t allow the female to give their side before him and he has stopped appearing. The person that sent the petition to iWitness is part of the panel. Yusuf knows he is guilty and Allah knows we did it to save other ladies from such occurrence.
“Take for instance, he confirmed to me that he sent a naked picture but it wasn’t his own, that he downloaded pictures from online. We are both from Epe. We had to encourage the sisters to speak out. He usually promised them that he would marry them. For instance, he asked them to come to his house.
“On another group, Path to Jannah, he would pick the number of new members of the group that are females and add him to his group. I told AbdulMalik who created the group about the dangers, that Allah will question him on what transpired on the group he created.
“When he came to the panel, he has deleted all the parts where he demanded for all those pictures and left the part of the nude pictures sent to him. He once told me that he is facing the same problem faced by prophet Yusuf and I told him that he was the one causing the problem for himself.”
It was however gathered that the panel discussions held on a Whatsapp group consisting of Yusuf and the alleged victims.
However, a member of the ‘Perfection to Islam’ group confided in our correspondent that “Apena is a writer and very fluent, so many sisters like him. He is someone that many people admire for his prowess.”
Part of the read, “The above named persons are fraud in creating Islamic whatsapp group to deceive Muslims, mostly ladies.
We have many victims from amongst the group members.
“He’s currently facing 10 count charges such as ” Sexual harassment” , “sexual abuse” “fraud ” skilled in lies uses fake picture of him to request for nude pictures of Sisters, in the name of Dawah.”
