Hanifa: Court Admits Tanko’s Confessional Statement, Proceeds With Trial

A Kano State High Court has ruled that the confessional statement made by Abdulmalik Tanko, the alleged killer of five-year-old Hanifa Abubakar, was not made under duress as alleged by the defendant.

The trial judge, Justice Usman Na’abba, thereafter admitted the statement as an exhibit in the ongoing culpable homicide trial.

Recall that Tanko had objected to the admissibility of the confessional statement when the prosecution sought to tender it in the ongoing trial, alleging that the said statement were obtained from him by the police under duress.

The judge had thereafter ordered a trial within trial to determine the admissibility or not of the said confessional statement.

During the trial-within-trial, Tanko testified that investigators assaulted him and threatened to kill him if he did not admit to the offence while the third defendant, Fatima Jibrin also alleged that she say how electric device were used to assault the male defendants, adding that she was not beaten but threatened by the police.

But the police investigators denied the allegations, saying the statement were obtained in the best standards prescribed by international best practices.

In his ruling, the judge held that the defendant did not adequately challenge the evidence of police investigators that the evidence was recorded without any use of force or threat or duress.

The judge said the evidence of the first two prosecution witnesses were credible.

“I am of the conclusive opinion that the two statements of the two defendants were made voluntarily and are hereby admitted in evidence,” the judge held.