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, was adjourned till February 9 by a Chief Magistrates’ Court in Kano on Wednesday.
Tanko, Hashimu Isyaku, 37, and Fatima Musa, 26, are charged with four counts of culpable murder, conspiracy, abduction, and concealing/keeping a kidnapped person in confinement.
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 offenses allegedly committed by the defendants are not eligible to be tried by 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 defendants to be remanded in a detention facility and adjourned the case to February 9, 2022, for further consideration.
