The Kano State Government has, Monday, promised that justice would be speedily served in the case involving three suspects who were nabbed for the kidnap and murder of a five-year-old girl in Kano, Hanifa Abubakar.
The government’s resolve came to the fore as the suspects-Tanko Abdulmalik Mohammed (the school proprietor), Ishiaku Hamisu, and Fatimah Jibril were arraigned at the Chief Magistrate Court 12, Gidan Murtala, Kano.
Hanifa was abducted by her teacher who demanded ransom from her parents and later killed her in December last year.
The charges filed against the trio include: conspiracy, kidnapping, concealing/keeping in confinement a kidnapped person, and culpable homicide, all of which they consented to.
The case was, however, adjourned till February 2, 2022.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General of Kano State, Mallam Musa Abdulahi, assured Nigerians that justice will be served in the next one or two months.
“What I will like to assure you is that the Ministry of Justice is going to, within the next three to four days, file a charge before the proper court,” Abdullahi continued.
“We intend to pursue this case vigorously and within the next month or two, we are going to finish with the prosecution of this case. Please stay calm, let the law take its course. We are a society of law-abiding citizens.
“We do know that it is very painful when these kinds of things happen, we tend to ask ourselves what is happening with our society but we should understand we are living peacefully because of the laws governing us.
“If not for those laws and security agencies, these suspects would not have been arrested within the shortest possible time.”
The gory news of little Hanifa’s abduction and subsequent murder sparked public anger and resentment, last Friday, not only in Kano where angry youths protested, but also across the country as the State Police Public Relations Officer, Mr.Haruna Kiyawa, told reporters that Hanifa’s teacher, one Abdulmalik Tanko, had been indicted in the murder.
He disclosed that the main suspect, Abdulmalik, confessed that he kidnapped the girl and took her to his house where he contacted her relatives and demanded N6 million ransom.
The evil teacher, according to the police spokesperson, later conspired with one Hashim Isyaku to kill the girl on December 18, 2021, having realised that the victim had recognised him.
On Monday, angry youths burnt the school where the body of the five-year-old was buried in the north-western state but no life was lost and nobody was arrested for the burning.