Sharia Court In Northern Nigeria Sentences Christian Singer To Death

For singing a Christian song considered blasphemous to Prophet Mohammed, a 22 years old Kano State-born Christian, Yahaya Aminu Sharif, has been sentenced to death.
Reading the sentence at the Upper Shari’a Court in Kano on Monday, presiding Khadi (judge), Aliyu Muhammad Kani, said Sharif was sentenced to death by hanging for blaspheming the Holy Prophet of Islam (PBUH).

Kani, in what has been described by some core adherents of the Shari’a legal system as a landmark verdict, found Sharif guilty for masterminding a religious song that was deemed blasphemous to the revered religious figure. 
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, protesters burnt down the singer’s family home and led a procession to the Kano Hisbah Command’s headquarters.

Sharu Aminu Shariff Shu’aibu, father of a Kano singer had last March disowned his son and described his actions of the renegade son as contrary to Islamic teachings.
Mr. Shu’aibu, who paid a visit to the headquarters of the Kano Hisbah board to douse tension last had on that August occasion revealed that his son Yahaya Shariff Aminu (Baban Gona), was not living at his house when he committed the crime.
He added that he did not share Mr. Baban Gona’s religious views. “I want to categorically inform the general public that blasphemy is not my ideology, and I promise to arrest him (my son) and hand him over to security agents whenever he is found. “If I had the authority to punish him by law, I will do that right away”.

Similarly, the court has also sentenced one Umar Farouq of the Sharada area of Kano metropolis to 10 years imprisonment for making derogatory statements concerning the Almighty Allah in a public argument.
Both convicts have been taken to Kano Central Prison.