Ganduje: I’ll Sign Death Sentence of Hanifa’s Killers with Speed If…

•Aisha Buhari endorses capital punishment for murderers

•Prime suspect, two others remanded in correctional centre

Ibrahim Shuaibu

The Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, yesterday, assured parents of five-year-old Hanifa Abubakar, who was kidnapped and brutally murdered by the proprietor of her school, Abdulmalik Tanko, that he would sign the death warrants of her killers with speed the moment the trial court passed death sentences on them.

Ganduje, who was sure her killers would die too, disclosed this, when he paid a condolence visit, alongside his Deputy, Dr Nasiru Yusuf Gawuna; Majority Leader, State House of Assembly, Labaran Abdul Madari and other top government functionaries, to the family’s residence in Dakata/Kawaji.

Also commenting on Hanifa’s killing, the First Lady, Aisha Buhari, has openly supported the call for capital punishment for the killers of the five-year-old.

Meanwhile, Tanko, alongside his two accomplices, Hamisu Isyaku and Fatima Jibrin, who were yesterday arraigned before a Magistrate Court 12, sitting at Gidan Murtala, Kano, and presided over by Magistrate Muhammad Jibril, have been remanded at a correctional centre in the state.

Addressing Hanifa’s parnts, Ganduje said, “We have good confirmation from the court handling the process that justice would be done. No stone would be left unturned. Whoever is found guilty of this heinous offence will also face death without wasting any time. As a government, we have already started the process.

“Our constitution provides that, when a death sentence is passed, it is the constitutional power of the governor to assent to the execution of the culprit. I assure you all that, I will not waste even one second.”

On the court proceedings, he further encouraged the parents that there would be speedy dispensation of justice, adding that, “The government will take good care of the family of our late child, Hanifa, of blessed memory,” adding also that the government would do something about the affected school.

On her part, Mrs. Buhari, in a shared video of an Islamic scholar on her verified Instagram page, supported the call for capital punishment, when she wrote in Hausa that, she supported the cleric’s judgement, saying, “We support the judgment of Malam”.

According to the video, the cleric, who spoke in Hausa, was heard saying capital punishment should be meted out on the killer of Hanifa.

“He should be separated from this world the same way he separated this girl from the world and it should be done publicly. He should be killed for all eyes to see so that tomorrow, nobody carries out such an act,” the cleric said, adding that capital punishment would serve as deterrence to others, who have the intention of carrying out such dastardly acts.

However, when the case was called for mention yesterday, counsel to the state government, Musa Lawan, the Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, who led eleven other lawyers, prayed to the court to read the charges to the suspects in Hausa language for better understanding, a request granted by the court.

After the charges were read before the suspects, they were not given the privileges to plead guilty or not, because the court had no jurisdiction to try the case.

Lawan also prayed the court to remand the suspects in the correctional centre to enable the state prepare charges against them and arraign them at proper a court for prosecution.

Magistrate Jibril, therefore, ordered that the suspects be remanded at the Kurmawa Correctional Centre as requested by the state’s lawyers and adjourned the hearing to February 2.

Addressing the press immediately after the proceeding, Lawan explained that the suspects were arraigned at the court, despite having no jurisdiction, because the police had concluded their investigations and had no power to continue to keep them in their custody.

“Of course, the magistrate court doesn’t have jurisdiction to try this case. The essence is that, as you can see the system, the police conducted an investigation, they have finished their investigation within the shortest possible time and brought the case to us.

“We cannot by today or tomorrow prepare the charges and the Police cannot continue to keep them in their custody, because law doesn’t give them that power to do that. They have to bring them to court and that is why they are here today. As you heard, the case is adjourned to 2nd of February and before then, the charges would be ready.

“The magistrate granted our application to remand them in court. Before then, I assure you, the charges would have been ready and we will charge them to the proper court,” Lawan said, reiterating that the state would prepare the charges against the suspects within seven days and file to a most appropriate court for a speedy trial.