Suspected killers of Hanifa Abubakar in court
Hanifa: Suspected killers finally arraigned, as case transferred to State High Court
Case of the murder of a five-year old pupil in Kano which was listed at a Magistrate’s Court has now been transferred to the state High Court for hearing.
This follows the request of the Chief Magistrate Muhammad Jibril of Magistrate court 12, sitting at Gidan Murtala in Kano State who, Tuesday, ordered the case of Abdulmalik Tanko and his accomplices to be transferred to the State High Court number 6 before Justice Usman Na’abba on February 9, 2022.
Tanko and his accomplices were arraigned before the court over the killing of five-year-old Hanifa Abubakar, a pupil in Tanko’s school.
Counsel to the state government led by Aisha Mahmoud applied to the court to adjourn the case to a higher court as the magistrate has no jurisdiction over the case.
“The offences alleged to have been committed by the defendants are not triable by this court, so we are applying for a count charges before the High Court,” Mahmoud said.
The court also ordered that the suspects be remanded in prison custody before re-arraignment in the next court.
Tanko, along with Hashimu Isiyaku and Fatima Musa, are standing trial on charges bordering on culpable homicide, kidnapping, concealing, and confinement of a kidnapped person.
The suspects were accused of the kidnap and subsequent murder of Hanifa with rat poison powder and, thereafter, burying her in a shallow grave after collecting the sum of N100,000 being part payment of the N6 million ransom they had demanded from the parents of the victim.
