Hanifa’s murder and implementation of death penalty
The gruesome murder of five-year-old Hanifa Abubakar by a teacher, Abdulmalik Tanko has wrenched at the heart of almost everybody, in fact anybody who has a heart must have felt the pain.
What makes it more so is that it was not perpetrated by ‘ordinary’ criminals, but by a teacher, a school proprietor for that matter. A person that parents trust with their children to protect them with his last blood if need be since they are in his care.
He is the proprietor of Noble Kids Academy, Kwanar Dakata, Nasarawa Local Government Area of Kano State. His behavior was anything but noble and a mockery of the name of the school.
Abdulmalik Tanko abducted Hanifa on her way from Islamiyya school at Kawaji, Yankaba area of Kano metropolis on December 4, 2021 and murdered her two weeks later.
He demanded N6m ransom. He collected part of the ransom, then killed her by giving her rat poison, he then buried her in the school’s premises. He was arrested on Wednesday last week while trying to receive another part of the ransom. His other accomplices Hashim Isyaku and Fatima Jibrin were also arrested.
Hanifa’s shallow grave was discovered last week Thursday by security agents. Abdulmalik has confessed to the crime.
Immediately, Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State promised that justice would be done. Former governors of the state, Senator Ibrahim Shekarau and Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso also said they would help pursue the case until justice was done.
Governor Ganduje said he would sign death warrant for the killers the moment the court passed death sentence on them. He said this when he paid a condolence visit to Hanifa’s parents few days ago.
And that is the crux of the matter, because after the arrest of Abdulmalik people were afraid that it might take years or forever even if he is sentenced to death to implement the judgment since governors are not signing death warrants. They don’t want ‘blood’ on their hands or they are afraid of human rights groups in Nigeria and internationally who are against death penalty, so murderers stay in prison.
A friend said he would be fed at the expense of government, and “if he falls sick they will take him to the hospital,” I added.
Let’s wait for the outcome before we applaud the governor for doing what he ought to do as his duty as the governor of the state.
Apparently, he said he would sign the death warrant because of the nature of the crime and the outrage and condemnation it generated.
We hope he would not be playing to the gallery just to appease the people and gain political support. After all there are many people on death row awaiting the signing of the governor to be executed, thus implementing judgment.
If indeed it is about seeing that justice is done for Hanifa, other victims should get justice as well.
I recall an interview with an attorney general of one state. He was asked that those against death penalty said it did not serve as deterrent as people still commit the crime.
“I don’t care whether it serves as deterrent or not, all I care about is if you kill somebody you should get the death penalty,” he said.
In other words, whether it stops others from committing murder or not, if a person kills somebody he should be given death penalty!
Meanwhile, the Kano State Government has revoked the certificate of operations of all private schools in the state. They have to do revalidation of their certificates.
It should be a wakeup call to be serious about supervision, registration and all other regulations put in place for operating private schools. They are under somebody overseeing them.
Somehow somewhere people may simply not do their job and because it is a systematic rot in our clime nobody cares until something terrible happens then they would be running helter-skelter to right the wrong they have been doing with total disregard.
All eyes are now on the Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje to see if he would fulfill his promise to sigh the death warrant if Abdulmalik Tanko is sentenced to death by the court, then others may be hopeful of getting justice as well.
