Lack of legal representation on Monday stalled the trial of a school proprietor, Abdulmalik Tanko, 34, before a Kano High Court for alleged murder of a five-year-old girl, Hanifa abubakar.
The police charged Tanko alongside Hashimu Isyaku, 37, and Fatima Musa, 26, were earlier arraigned on January 24, 2022 before a Chief Magistrates’ Court on four counts of culpable homicide, conspiracy, kidnapping and concealing/keeping in confinement a kidnapped person.
The defendants, however, prayed the Kano State Government to provide a legal representation on their behalf.
When the case came up for re-arraignment on Monday, the Prosecution Counsel and Kano State Attorney-General, Musa Abdullahi-Lawan, told the court that the defendants had no counsel and asked for an adjournment to enable them do so.
“The state will ensure that the defendants have legal representation so that case will go on,” he said.
Justice Usman Na’abba ordered the remand of the defendants in a Correctional centre and adjourned the matter until February 14 for further mention.
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 the minor.
The police alleged that Tanko held the minor hostage in his house situated in Tudun Murtala Quarters, Kano for six days and killed her with using rat poison.
The police also alleged that he put her corpse in a sack and buried her in a shallow grave on December 10, 2021.
The offence, he said, contravened the provisions of sections 97, 274, 277 and 221 of the Penal Code.
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