Tag: Kano Blasphemy

Kano atheist, Mubarak Bala, sentenced to 24 years imprisonment for blasphemy

Aminu Imam

Kano-born atheist, Mubarak Bala, has been sentenced to 24 years imprisonment after pleading guilty to all the 18-count charges leveled against him. Bala, who is the president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, was arrested at his home in Kaduna on April 28, 2020, and taken to Kano, where complaints of blasphemy and incitement were lodged against him. He had earlier posted comments critical of Islam, Allah and Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) on Facebook, causing outrage among the Muslim faithful. One of his posts reads: “Religion is not a person, long-dead…

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Kano blasphemy: UN experts call for ‘immediate’ release of convicted musician

Ishaku Yohanna

The United Nations human rights experts have called on Nigerian authorities to immediately release a 22-year-old singer, Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, sentenced to death over an allegedly blasphemous song shared on social media. The experts made the call on Monday in a joint statement titled ‘UN rights experts urge Nigeria to overturn death sentence for singer who shared song on WhatsApp’. “We are deeply concerned over the serious lack of due process in Sharif-Aminu’s case so far, especially reports that he has been held incommunicado and that he did not have access…

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