Some angry youths in Kano State have razed the property used as a school where a five-year-old girl, Hanifa Abubakar, was killed last week allegedly by the school proprietor, Abdulmalik Tanko.
Residents of Dakata area in Kwanar Dakata, Nasarawa Local Government Area of the state where the Noble Kids Academy is located, however, condemned the burning down of the building, saying the structure was not owned by the suspect.
Angry youths, on Sunday night, set the building ablaze.
It was also learnt that the security personnel deployed outside the school premises were not at the scene when the aggrieved persons stormed the area.
Meanwhile, a Kano State magistrates’ court presided over by Chief Magistrate Muhammad Jibir has ordered Tanko, the suspected killer of Hanifa, to be remanded at a correctional centre.
The police on Monday arraigned Tanko and two others before the magistrates’ court at Gidan Murtala in Kano metropolis, on charges of criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, concealing/keeping in confinement a kidnapped person and culpable homicide.
The accused was not represented, while Mr Lamido Soron Dinki was the prosecuting counsel.
After the charges were read to the accused, he was later remanded in prison custody and the case adjourned till February 2.
A source, Malam Ibrahim Muhammad, said residents of the area woke up on Monday morning to discover that the property had been burnt down overnight.
Meanwhile, the state governor, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, has said once a judgment is passed in the court, he will assent to the death sentence.
The governor made this known when he led a delegation of top government officials to condole with the family of the deceased on Monday.
Members of the governor’s entourage included his deputy, Dr Nasuru Yusuf Gawuna; the Majority Leader in the House of Assembly, Honourable Labaran Abdul Madari, and other top government functionaries.
Ganduje said: “We have good confirmation from the court handling the process that justice will be done. No stone will be left unturned.”
Whoever is found guilty of this heinous offence will also face death without wasting any time. As a government, we have already started the process.
“Our constitution provides that when a death sentence is passed, it is the constitutional power of the governor to assent for the execution of the culprit. I assure you all that I will not waste even one second.”
Meanwhile, the state government, in its effort to sanitise the administration of private schools as well curtail recurrence of bad incidents, has resolved to revoke the certificate of all private schools in order to revalidate their certification.
The government had earlier ordered the immediate closure of Noble Kids Academy, where the proprietor, Tanko, allegedly murdered Hanifa.
