A Chief Magistrates’ Court sitting in Kano on Wednesday fixed February 9 for the trial of a school proprietor, Abdulmalik Tanko, 34, for the alleged murder of five-year-old Hanifa.
The Kano State Government had charged Tanko to court alongside Hashimu Isyaku, 37, and Fatima Musa, 26.
They were charged with culpable homicide, conspiracy, kidnapping and concealing/keeping in confinement a kidnapped person.
The Kano State Director Public Prosecution, Aisha Mahmoud, informed the court that the State has filed the charge before Kano State High Court.
Mahmoud: “We filed the charge because the offence alleged to have been committed by the defendants cannot be tried by this court.
“The Kano Chief Judge has directed that the case be transferred to Court 5.
“We apply for another date to terminate the First Information Report before this court.”
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that on December 4, 2021, Tanko, being the proprietor of Nobel Kids Comprehensive College, Kano, conspired with the two others to kidnap Hanifa.
Mahmoud earlier alleged that Tanko held Hanifa hostage in his house situated at Tudun Murtala Quarters, Kano for six days and killed her with a rat poison, put her corpse into a sack and buried her in a shallow grave on December 10, 2021.
“The defendants collected the sum of N100,000 ransom out of the N6 million earlier requested,” she said.
The pleas of the accused persons were not taken.
Mahmoud said that the offences contravened the provision of Sections 97, 274, 277 and 221 of the Penal Code.
The Chief Magistrate, Muhammad Jibril, ordered the remand of the defendants in a Correctional Centre.
Jibril adjourned the matter until February 9 for further mention.
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