The Kano State High Court has sentenced the Proprietor of Nobel Kids Academy and North West Preparatory School, Abdulmalik Muhammmad Tanko, the principal suspect who masterminded the kidnap and killing of 5-year-old school girl, Hanifa Abubakar, to death by hanging, on Thursday 28.
The Presiding Judge, Justice Usman Na’abba, also convicted Tanko to five years imprisonment for four count charges leveled against him.
The Judge, Justice Na’abba also sentenced the second defendant, Hashim Ishyaku to death by hanging and Four years imprisonment (2 years each for conspiracy and concealment).
The judge in his ruling held that the convicts conspired and kidnapped the deceased from the Sheik Dahiru Bauchi Islamic foundation, killed and buried her in a shallow grave in Northwest Preparatory school, located at Kwanar Yan Ghana, in Nassarawa LGA, Kano
To prove the case, the prosecution team led by Kano State Attorney General, Musa Abdullahi Lawan called 8 witnesses and tendered 14 exhibits.
The witnesses include the mother of the deceased, Murja Suleiman Zubair, DSS Operatives who arrested Abdulmalik, and Police officers who investigated the case.
The exhibit tendered includes confessional statements of the convicts, a photograph of the deceased, her hijab, and an Islamic school badge among others.
Little Hanifa was kidnapped on December 4, 2021, on her way back from Islamiyya and killed by Tanko who initially demanded N6m ransom from her parents. Tanko had confessed to using N100 rat poison to kill Hanifa.