A Chief Magistrates’ Court sitting in Kano, on Wednesday, adjourned sitting till February 9 in the criminal trial of Abdulmalik Tanko and two other accomplices over the alleged murder of five-year-old Hanifa Abubakar, a pupil of Nobel Kids Academy and North West Preparatory school.
Tanko, Hashimu Isyaku, 37, and Fatima Musa, 26, are facing four-count of culpable homicide, conspiracy, kidnapping and concealing/keeping in confinement a kidnapped person.
When the case was slated for mention on Wednesday, the prosecution counsel, who is the Kano State Director of Public Prosecutions, Aisha Mahmoud, informed the court that the prosecution had filed charges before a Kano High Court.
Mahmoud said, “We filed the charges because the offences allegedly committed by the defendants are not eligible to be tried by this court.
“The Kano Chief Judge has directed the case to High Court 5. We applied for another date to terminate the First Information Report before this court.”
Tanko, who is the proprietor of Nobel Kids Comprehensive College, Kano, was alleged to have conspired with the two others to kidnap Hanifa. Mahmoud alleged that Tanko held Hanifa hostage in his house, located at the Tudun Murtala Quarters of Kano for six days and killed her with rat poison, put her remains in a sack and buried her in a shallow grave.
“The defendants collected the sum of N100,000 out of the N6m ransom earlier demanded from the victim’s family,” the prosecutor stated.
In his ruling, Chief Magistrate Muhammad Jibril ordered the remand of the defendants in a correctional centre and adjourned the matter till February 9, 2022, for further mention.