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Abdulmalik Tanko, proprietor of five-year-old Hanifa Abubakar, has once again denied knowledge of how the innocent girl died.
He made the denial at High Court number 5, sitting at Audu Bako, on Monday.
The court was presided over by Justice Usman Na’abba.
Tanko, who previously admitted to conspiracy, denied the remaining three charges against him, including kidnap and subsequent killing of the young girl.
While admitting to taking Hanifa to his school and locking her up, he said, “I am not sure if I am the last person who saw her alive because I have earlier communicated to someone else about it. I did neither killed nor poisoned her. I left her sleeping and came back to see her dead.
“Myself, the second and third defendants did not know how she died.”
Daily Trust reports that Hanifa was abducted on December 4, 2021, on her way home from Islamiyya School and subsequently discovered to have been killed.
Earlier, Tanko confessed to kidnapping and killing the victim with N100 rat poison before burying her in a shallow grave in one of his schools.
The trio of Abdulmalik alongside his accomplice, Hashim Isyaku and Fatima Bashir were arraigned before the Kano State High court on five count charges bordering on criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, confinement, and culpable homicide contrary to sections 97, 274, 277, 221 of the penal code.
The case has been adjourned to May 10 for continuation of the defence hearing.
