A Kano State High Court has sentenced Abdulmalik Tanko and Hashim Isyaku to death by hanging following their conviction for kidnapping and culpable homicide.
Abdulmalik Tanko and two others were charged for criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, confinement, and culpable homicide contrary to sections 97, 274, 277, 221 of Kano State Penal Code 1991.
Delivering the judgement on Thursday, Justice Usman Na’abba ruled that the prosecution proved beyond reasonable doubt that the defendants criminally conspired to abduct and murder five-year-old pupil, Hanifa Abubakar.
Abdulmalik Tanko is the proprietor of Nobel Kids Academy, Kwanar Dakata in Nassarawa Local Government Area of Kano State, the school that the late Hanifa attended.
Abdulmalik abducted Hanifa on December 2, 2020 and took her to his house. He later contacted her family demanding a ransom of N6 million. Despite collecting N100, 000 as part of the ransom, he still went ahead to kill the innocent girl. The police arrested him while trying to collect the remaining part of the N6m ransom he demanded.
The manner Hanifa Abubakar was kidnapped and killed looked more like scenes in horror movies. Tanko dismembered the little girl after killing her with rat poison he bought at N100 (some say, N10) and then buried her remains in a shallow grave on the school premises.
