21-year-old arraigned for sleeping with mentally ill inmates

Twenty-one-year-old Sulaimon Lateef was on Thursday arraigned for sleeping with two female inmates at the Rehabilitation and Training Centre (for mentally infirm persons) in Owutu, Ikorodu, Lagos.

Lateef was charged before the Lagos State Environmental and Special Offences Court, Alausa Ikeja. He pleaded not guilty to the four counts instituted against him by the state’s Attorney-General.

The prosecutor, Mr. Babatunde Sunmonu, explained that the accused could not be charged with rape due to the mental status of the victims.

The accused was therefore charged with causing breach of peace, conducting himself as a disorderly person and obstructing one Olasunkanmi Hassan, an official of the rehabilitation centre.

Part of the charges read, “That you Lateef Suleiman, male, on June 7, 2013, by 9.30pm at Rehabilitation Centre for Mentally Infirm, Owutu, in Ikorudu conducted yourself in a manner likely to cause breach of public peace when you climbed a 14ft fence, an offence contrary to Section 166()(d) Criminal Law 2011 and punishable under section 166(2) of the same law.”

Lateef, who was said to have first visited the centre seeking employment, was allegedly attracted to the inmates, two of whom he allegedly induced with N200 and N100 and allegedly slept with them on different occasions.

Upon an application for bail by his counsel, Ayo Odekunle, the presiding magistrate, Mrs. Jadesola Adeyemi, granted the accused bail in the sum of N50,000 with two sureties in like sum

The court adjourned till July 11 for mention.

PUNCH