The Lagos State Police Command has charged three suspects to court for allegedly beating a prostitute, Hannah Saliu, to death and setting her corpse ablaze for keeping the Holy Quran in her room.
Hannah was reportedly beaten, stabbed and burnt to death by one of her customers with the aide of his friends.
The incident happened in Alaba Rago area of Lagos State andThe suspects are Abubakar Musa, Sarauta Monsur, and Surajo Yusuf.
It was gathered that one of the suspects had patronized Saliu and paid her N1,000 for her services but almost immediately the customer left the room, the prostitute was reported to have raised an alarm that he stole her N5,000.
The accusation, however, degenerated into an argument which led the customer to mobilize his friends and demand a search in the prostitute’s room for the missing money.
It was while searching for the money that they discovered a Quran underneath her pillow.
The discovery was said to have enraged the customer and his friends who were of the opinion that a prostitute should not be in possession of a Quran.
They thereafter pounced on her, beat and stabbed her before eventually dragging her out and setting her ablaze.
“What happened was that the girl was a prostitute and a customer patronised her and after sleeping with her, the customer paid N1,000 for her service.
“But when the customer was leaving, he stole the prostitute’s N5,000 and after discovering that her money had gone missing, the prostitute chased him to ask for her money.
“The Northerners, who were with the customer that the girl accused of stealing her money, asked if she was sure that he stole her money. So, they decided to go and search her room where she attended to her customers.
“While searching the room, they found Quran under her pillow and started asking what she was using the Quran for as a prostitute. So, they started attacking her; they stabbed her, took her out and set her ablaze.
“The incident happened at Alaba Rago, where a lot of Northerners reside. The girl that was killed also came from the North. Their grouse was that she was not supposed to be carrying Quran because of the kind of work she was doing,” a source quoted by Punch Metro narrated.
The Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin also confirmed the incident, pointing out that it happened in April and the matter is in court already.
He said, “The case is at the State Criminal Investigation Department, Yaba, and three suspects have been charged to court. The incident happened in April.”
