5-year-old Hanifa Abubakar
Justice Usman Na’abba of Kano high court had reserved judgment and adjourned the case of a school proprietor Abdulmalik Tanko, for the alleged murder of 5-year-old Hanifa Abubakar.
The judge adjourned the matter to July 28 for judgment after the defense and prosecution counsel had adopted their final written addresses.
Abdulmalik, Hashimu and Fatima all residents of Tudun Murtala Quarters, Kano, were arraigned on February 14, on a five-count charge of criminal conspiracy, attempt to kidnap, abatement, kidnapping and concealing a dead body.
The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Earlier, the defense counsel Hasiya Muhammad, in adopting her final written address dated and filed on May 31, urged the court to consider the defendants and discharge them.
“We urge the court to adopt the written addresses as our oral argument in this case.”
The prosecution counsel, Deputy Director Public Prosecution, (DPP) Rabi Ahmad in her final written addresses dated and filed June 6, urged the judge to convict and sentence the three defendants as charged.
Rabi argued that the second defendant, Isyaku is standing trial for concealing a dead body contrary to 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.”
The defendants closed their defense on May 10 with three witnesses.
Meanwhile, the prosecution counsel had on April 12, closed its case against the defendants with nine witnesses and tendered 14 exhibits to prove their case.
Tanko, the proprietor of Nobel Kids Comprehensive College, Kano, was alleged to have kidnapped his student Hanifa, on Dec. 4, 2021, and held her hostage in his house at Tudun Murtala for days before he killed and buried her in a shallow grave on December 10, 2021.
The offences are said to have contravened Sections 97, 95 and 273, 274 (b) and 277 of the Penal Code, Laws of Kano State, 1991.
Reporting by Khadija Aliyu; Editing by Abdullahi Lamino