Appeal Court Sets Aside Death Sentence Against Kano Singer

The appeal division of the Kano State High Court has set aside the death sentence passed on Aminu Yahaya Sharif, for blasphemy.

Mr Sharif, a resident of Sharifai in Kano metropolis was accused of committing blasphemy against the prophet in a song he circulated via WhatsApp in March 2020.

Following the incident, protestors burnt down the singer’s family home and led a procession to the Kano Hisbah Command’s headquarters.

A Kano Upper Shari’a Court sitting at Hausawa Filin Hockey in Kano
sentenced him to death in August, 2020. A decision he appealed in September 2020.

The Executive Governor of Kano State, Umar Ganduje had indicated readiness to sign the death warrant once it completed the full cycle of the Court.

“I will not waste time in signing the warrant for the execution of the man, who blasphemed our Holy Prophet of Islam,” Ganduje said

An Appeal Court in Kano hearing the case of a singer, Yahaya Sharif Aminu, who allegedly blasphemed against Islam has been set aside, while the court has ordered another trial of the matter.

However, the presiding judge Justice Nuradeen Sagir, who is the State Chief Judge and his co-panellist, Justice Nasiru Saminu, ruled that the first trial was full of irregularities and that the appellant was not given a fair legal representation.

Both judges, therefore, submitted that the judgement by an Upper Sharia Court Hausawa Filin Hockey contravenes section 2-6-9 of the ACJN, and that was done in nullity.

Justice Sagir who is the presiding judge ordered that the case be re-tried at the same court, but that the appellant be given a fair hearing and full legal representation.