By Fanen Ihyongo, Kano

The Appeal Court on Thursday quashed the death sentence passed on 22-year-old singer Yahaya Aminu-Sharif by the Upper Shari’a Court.

He was charged at the lower court with blasphemy

Presiding judges – Justice Nuradeen Sagir, who doubles as the State Chief Judge, and his co-panelist, Justice Nasiru Saminu – ordered a retrial of the case on the grounds that irregularities marred the proceedings at the lower court.

There was tight security at the court during the ruling.

Aminu-Sharif, a Kano-based musician, was sued for “insulting religious creed, contrary to Section 382 (b) of Kano State Shari’a Penal Code Law 2000”.

The Sharia Court, presided over by Khadi Aliyu Muhammad Kani, on August 10, 2020, sentenced Aminu-Sharif to death by hanging, having found him guilty of committing blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in a song which he circulated via WhatsApp in March last year.

Despite the outcry over the judgment, Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje endorsed the judgment, saying he would not waste time to sign the singer’s death sentence if he failed to appeal in 30 days.

Read Also; Blasphemy: Ganduje to sign singer’s death sentence

Aminu-Sharif, through his counsel, Kola Alapinni, appealed that the appellate court should set aside the entire judgment of the Upper Sharia Court of Kano.

Alapinni contended that the appellant’s trial, conviction and sentencing by the Upper Sharia Court, pursuant to Kano State Penal Code Law 2000, were unconstitutional, null and void, having grossly violated and conflicted with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended, the African Charter on Human and Peoples Right and Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The lawyer argued that the offence of blasphemy for which Aminu-Sharif was convicted was no longer a cognisable offence in Nigeria by virtue of Section 10, standing alone or in conjunction with sections 38 and 39 of the Constitution.

Alapinni maintained that a capital offence seeking to terminate a human life must complies strictly, especially with the right to life provisions of the Constitution of Nigeria.

The lawyer averred that the confessional statement and the plea of the applicant in the lower court was a nullity and legally irrelevant in the absence of a valid law criminalising the appellant’s alleged criminal conduct.

Justice Nuradeen Sagir discharged the minor, saying the Shari’a verdict against him was passed in a rush.

He maintained that a penal Sharia Code law is only applicable and permissible in Islamic theocracies or countries whose constitutions allow such laws, whereas Nigeria is a multi-religious state with constitutional democracy and the constitution being the supreme law.