For some, religious disagreements and heated exchanges may end in insults or mutual agreement to disagree, but this is not the case for 22-year-old Yahaya Sharif-Aminu who is set to die by hanging for blaspheming Prophet Muhammad.
Yahaya was today, sentenced to death by Presiding Judge, Khadi Aliyu Muhammad Kani of a Kano Upper Shari’a Court, having found him guilty of the offence.
Yahaya stood trial for blasphemy in a song he circulated via WhatsApp in March 2020.
The incident led protesters to burn down his family home in Sharifai, Kano State, then proceed to the Kano Hisbah Command headquarters in protest of his action.
Along with Yahaya, one Umar Farouq of Sharada quarters, Kano, was also handed a 10-year prison sentence over derogatory comments made against “the Almighty Allah in a public argument.”
READ ALSO: Diezani attacked over Yahoo boys comment, as Nigerians says ‘Return Looted Fund’
The Kano Hisbah Commander, Harun Ibn-Sina, while addressing the protesters, said the Hisbah officials were handling the situation and that the man’s parents were in Police custody.
Convener of the protest, Idris Ibrahim, said “Our mission is to alert the government to do the needful; otherwise, we will take the law into our own hands.”
Yahaya had composed and publicized a song which contained derogatory verses against Prophet Muhammad, which prompted the action of the protesters against him and his family members.
By Daniel Ojukwu
