Court sentences Hanifa’s killer to death by hanging

Justice Usman Naaba also slammed a five-year jail term on the murderer for all the five charges labelled against him.

The Court also found guilty, the 2nd defendant in the case, Hashim Isiyaku on four charges and sentenced him to death by hanging

He also has a two-year prison term hanging on his throat for attempts to kidnap.

Hanifa Abubakar (born 2016) was a Nigerian girl who was kidnapped and murdered by Abdumalik Tanko, the proprietor of her school Noble Kids Academy in Nassarawa, Kano State, Nigeria.

Tanko, according to Haruna Kiyawa who is the Police Public Relations Officer in Kano, confessed that he kidnapped Hanifa and took her to his house where he contacted her relatives and demanded a ransom of N6 million.

Tanko had told his wife that late Hanifa was a daughter to one of his school teachers who traveled.

On December 18, 2021, having realised that the she had recognised him, he was said to have conspired with Hashim Isyaku to kill the girl

After drinking tea around 23:00hrs, Tanko put the leftover tea in empty container of Bobo Yoghurt (a yoghurt-based milk drink for children), and poured rat killer poison into the container.

He picked her from his house when she was already sleeping and told her that he was taking her back to her uncle’s house. On their way, he gave Hanifa the drink and she drank it. He told her that he will pick something from a school at Kwanar Yan Gana Tudun Murtala, Nassarawa.

Hanifa finally died moments after he got to the school. He put her corpse in a sack and buried her in a shallow grave with help of Hashim Isyaku.

Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, had long promised to sign the court judgement once the suspect was judged according to the crime he was accused of.

He apologised to the girl’s parents and the people of Kano, stressing that there was no use for such persons to continue to live in the society.