Court sentences self-confessed killer of Hanifa to death by hanging

A high court in Kano state has sentenced Abdulmalik Tanko, the self-confessed killer of Hanifa Abubakar, a five-year-old girl, to death.

Tanko and 37-year-old Hashimu Isyaku, his co-defendant, were sentenced to death by hanging.

Delivering the judgment on Thursday, Usman Na’abba also sentenced Fatima Musa to two years imprisonment.

Tanko, proprietor of the school Hanifa attended, was paraded by the police in January 2022, during which he confessed to having killed the girl with rat poison and buried her in a shallow grave.

The Kano government had arraigned 34-year-old Tanko alongside Isyaku and Musa on a five-count charge bordering on criminal conspiracy, attempt to kidnap, abetment, kidnapping and concealing a dead body.

Although Tanko and Isyaku pleaded guilty to the first-count charge of criminal conspiracy, they pleaded not guilty to the other four counts.

The third defendant pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The offences are in contravention of sections 97, 95 and 273, 274(b) and 277 of the Penal Code, Laws of Kano State, 1991.

The prosecution closed its case on April 12 after calling nine witnesses and tendering 14 exhibits to prove its case.

The defendants testified for themselves.