Alleged blasphemy: Court orders mental evaluation of controversial Kano Scholar

By Ibrahim Shuaibu

An Upper Shari’a Court sitting in Kano, yesterday ordered that Sheikh Abduljabbar Nasiru Kabara should be taken to Dawanau psychiatric hospital for a mental evaluation.

The Kano State Government charged Kabara, who lived in Gwale Quarters Kano in Kano metropolitan, on four counts bordering on blasphemous comments.

In his verdict, the Justice Ibrahim Sarki Yola, ordered that the defendant be taken to Dawanau psychiatric Hospital Kano to ascertain his mental health.

Yola also ordered that an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) doctor at the Murtala Muhammad Specialist Hospital Kano must carry out some tests on the defendant.

Addressing reporters yesterday in Kano after the court sitting, the counsel to Sheikh Kabara, Mr. Saleh Muhammad Bakaro, explained that in an earlier sitting their team demanded the court to continue the case based on the First Information Report (FIR), determine the legal position of the fiat given to Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) by the state’s attorney general to represent the state government in a court lower than the High Court and also the position of the Shariah as regards changing of charges in cases against an accused but the judge ruled that the charges be read to the accused.

“In the last court sitting, the court adjourned the case to allow it rule on three demands we placed before it that include, whether the fiat given to the SANs to represent the state in a court lower than the High Court is legal or not, whether the Shariah allows for changing of charges in a case already before the court, as in this case which was instituted based on FIR and they changed it to new charges and we also faulted the said charges which have to be addressed before they are read before the court.

“But the judge went ahead and delivered a ruling forcefully reading the charges to our client before all our demands were rectified.

“No one responded to our demands and the judge is going ahead to rule against us. So I have no option but to go to a court with higher jurisdiction to decide on this.

“It is wrong of the judge to decide on the matter alone by listening to only one party and denying the other fair hearing? Our client as you saw in the court remained silent and did not respond to the charges even as the court took his action as pleading not guilty.

“So we have demanded for the complete proceedings of the case so far to prepare our appeal,” he stated.

Sarki Yola adjourned the matter until September 16, for a continuation of the hearing.