There was tight security around Kano High Court premises on Thursday as it’s appeal division is about to commence hearing on two appeal cases of Blasphemy before it.
The court had fixed Thursday, November 26, 2020 for definite hearing in the two cases after the earlier adjournment following the inability of the Appellant lawyers to attend the last court sitting.
The two cases sets for hearing are those of 22 year old Yahaya Aminu Sharif sentence to death by an Upper Shariah court and a 13-year-old Umar Faruk sentence to 10 years imprisonment.
At the court’s last sitting in October, the appellant lawyers who were to come in from Lagos could not do so ‘due to some challenges’ the court was told so through one Zubairu Suleiman Usman (not a lawyer) who stood up when the case was mentioned.
Usman told the court that the lawyers reach out to him, asking him to inform the court that they want the case to be rescheduled for 26-30th of November.
The respondents lead lawyer, the attorney general of Kano state, Musa Abdullahi Lawal told the court of their intention to file an application to enable them serve the appellants through substituted means so that they can respond at next adjourned date.
In his ruling, Justice Nasiru Saminu acknowledged that the #endsars riots in Lagos then and due to the sensitive nature of the case also accepted the message sent through the messenger before adjourning the matter to November 26 for definite hearing.
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Shariff Yahaya Aminu was convicted on a one-count charge of insulting religious creed, contrary to Section 382 (6) of the Kano State Sharia Penal Code Law 2000.
Daily Trust reports that Aminu committed the offence via a WhatsApp post on February 28, 2020, in which he called the Holy prophet a ‘mushrik (proclaiming other gods)’.
A mushrik, according to askislampedia.com, “is a person who believes in another deity together with Allah The Almighty, and who demonstrates this by dedicating acts of worship, such as kneeling, prostration, supplication, slaughtering or any other act of worship, to a being other than Allah The Almighty.”
Other online definitions said the term is used interchangeably with the word kafir, an Arabic word meaning infidel or unbeliever.
The prosecutor, Inspector Aminu Yargoje, told the court that the said post was intended to create ill feelings among the Muslim faithful in the state.