By Tukur Muntari, PUNCH
A Kano Upper Shari’a Court on Monday sentenced a 22-year-old man to death by hanging for blaspheming Prophet Muhammad.
The Presiding Judge, Khadi Aliyu Muhammad Kani, gave the judgement after finding Yahaya Sharif-Aminu guilty as charged.
Sharif-Aminu, a resident of Sharifai in Kano metropolis, was accused of committing blasphemy in Sharia against the Prophet in a song he circulated via WhatsApp in March 2020.
After the incident, protesters burned down the singer’s family home and led a procession to the Kano Hisbah Command’s headquarters in protest against the singer’s action.
The court has also sentenced one Umar Farouq of Sharada quarters in Kano metropolis to 10-year imprisonment for making “derogatory statements concerning the Almighty Allah in a public argument.”
The PUNCH had reported that aggrieved youths on March 4 staged a protest on the premises of the Kano Hisbah office, over what they described as an alleged blasphemous song against Prophet Muhammad.
While addressing the protesters, the Kano Hisbah Commander, Harun Ibn-Sina, said officials in the state were on top of the situation and that the man’s parents had been arrested and were under Police custody.
The protesters alleged that the nonchalant attitude of the government and the security agents in the state over the issue informed their decision to embark on the protest.
