A Kano State High Court has sentenced AbdulMalik Muhammad Tanko, 38, to death by hanging for kidnapping and killing five-year-old school girl, Hanifa Abubakar.
Tanko, the proprietor of Nobel Kids Academy and North-West Preparatory School, was the principal suspect in the murder of the pupil. He was convicted and sentenced alongside his accomplice, Hashim Isyaku, 38.
Hanifa was a pupil at Tankos private school, located in the Kwanar-Dakata area of Kano metropolis.
The presiding judge Justice Usman Na’abba, in a judgment on Thursday, said the court was convinced beyond reasonable doubt that the duo conspired and kidnapped the deceased from Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi Islamic Foundation, killed and buried her in a shallow grave in the school, located at Kwanar Yan-Ghana, in Nasarawa local government area.
Tanko was arraigned alongside Isyaku and Fatima Jibrin before the court by the Kano State Government on charges bordering on criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, confinement and culpable homicide contrary to sections 97, 274, 277, 221 of the Penal Code.
Hanifa was abducted on December 4, 2021, on her way home from Islamiyya School.
The Police in Kano subsequently arrested the proprietor, Tanko, for allegedly kidnapping and killing the five-year-old.
