The Kano State High Court on Thursday sentenced Abdulmalik Muhammad Tanko, 38, to death by hanging for kidnapping and killing a five-year-old 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.
The presiding judge Justice Usman Naabba, 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 Northwest Preparatory School, located at Kwanar Yan Ghana, in Nasarawa Local Government Area of Kano State.
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.
Hanifa was a pupil at Tanko’s private school located in the Kwanar Dakata area of Kano.
According to the police, Tanko confessed that he poisoned the girl when he realised that she had recognised him and buried her remains with the help of Isyaku.
