Jamila Sani, wife of Abdulmalik Tanko, the principal suspect in the death of five-year-old Kano schoolgirl Hanifa Abubakar, told Kano State High Court on Thursday that her husband deceived her when he took Hanifa hostage last year.
Sani said her husband brought Hanifa home wearing her school uniform and introduced her as the child of one of his teachers ‘Murjanatu’ who wanted to travel to Saudi Arabia.
“The girl was crying on the day he brought her home and my two daughters were playing. He told the girl to see her new friends Aisha and Rukayya and the girl said her name was Hanifa, that is how I knew her name,” she said.
Throughout Sani’s testimony, her husband did not raise his head up to look at the face of the woman he has been married to for six years.
Sani also told the court that her husband came with a new phone one time and he told her it was for a friend.
Earlier in court, the owner of the phone Jummai Alhassan narrated how she lost her phone inside a tricycle and how the Department of State Services invited her for questioning while investigating the matter.
Tanko told the court that he was brutalised while in police custody with electric shock.
Justice Usman Na’Abba adjourned the case to March 9 and 10, 2022.
