Hanifa’s Murder: Court Overrules Suspects over Alleged Torture
EMERGENCY DIGEST- Justice Usman Na’aba of Kano High Court situated at Audu Bako Secretariat, has overruled allegations of threat to life, confession under duress and torture raised by Abdulmaliq Tanko, the prime suspect and other in the murder case of Hanifa Abubakar, a five-year-old pupil of Noble Kiddies Academy kidnapped and killed in Kano.
At the resumption of the criminal trial yesterday Justice Na’abba declared that there was no substantive evidence brought before the court to prove the suspects were not responsible for their earlier statements.
In his ruling on trial within trial, Justice Na’abba declared that Abdulmaliq could not clearly prove the identity of the device which he claimed was used to penetrate his body parts, thereby dismissing the suspects argument.
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Abdulmaliq (first defendant) and Fatima Musa (third defendant) at the last sitting denied signing the confessional statement brought against them by the security.
The prime suspect also revealed that he was electrocuted with an unknown device and threatened with dangerous weapons by the security while making a statement which he claimed refused to sign.
The third defendant similarly told the court that she was threatened and offered N250,000 compensation, if she offered to cooperate with the security officers while obtaining her confession.
The revelation came when the defence counsel, Muktar L. Usman objected to the submission of the first security witness Sergeant Rilwan Ibrahim for what he described as inconsistency in the evidence of the first and third suspects statements.
The defence solicitor who also doubles as deputy director at Legal Aid Council, Kano office, faulted the method applied by the police to obtaining the suspects’ statement, insisting the security failed to comply with provisions of Criminal Administration of Justice Act (CAJA).
Usman later sought the court permission to order for a trial within trial, to clear the claim and counterclaim where the first (Tanko) and third (Fatima) suspects made contrary claims.
