A Kano State High Court has fixed July 28 for judgement in the case of the kidnap and killing of a five-year-old pupil Hanifa Abubakar.
The suspects, Abdulmalik Tanko, Hashimu Isyaku, 37; and Fatima Musa, 26, were charged with five counts of criminal conspiracy, attempt to kidnap, abetment, kidnapping and concealing dead body. They pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Justice Usman Na’abba fixed the date after the defence and prosecution counsel adopted their final written addresses.
Earlier, the defence counsel Hasiya Muhammad, in adopting her final written addresses dated and filed on May 31, prayed the court to consider the defendants and discharge them.
“We urge the court to adopt our written addresses as our oral argument in this case,” she said.
The prosecution counsel, who is the deputy director of public prosecution (DPP), Rabi Ahmad, in the final written address dated and filed June 6, prayed the court to convict and sentence the three defendants as charged.
Ahmad argued that the second defendant (Isyaku) is standing trial for concealing dead body contrary to the provisions of Section 277 of the Penal Code and punishable with death under Section 274(b).
“We urge the court to note the content of exhibit 12 (confessional statement) of the second defendant for burying late Hanifa’s corpse,” he said.
Tanko, the proprietor of Nobel Kids Comprehensive College, Kano, was alleged to have kidnapped Hanifa, on December 4, 2021, held her hostage in his house at Tudun Murtala for days before killing and buried her in a shallow grave on December 10, 2021.
