A school proprietor in Kano State, Abdulmalik Mohammed-Tanko, 30, who was arrested alongside his accomplice, Hashim Isyaku, 37, by the police for kidnapping and killing one of his pupils, a five-year-old girl, said he murdered the victim because she recognised him.
The state Police Public Relations Officer, Abdullahi Haruna-Kiyawa, said the suspect had demanded N6 million ransom from the parents of the girl, Hanifa Abubakar, before he later poisoned her to death and buried her.
Speaking to newsmen on Friday at the headquarters of the state police command in Bompai, Kano, Tanko confessed that he killed the girl with a rat poison he had procured for N100.
The suspect said he decided to kidnap one of his pupils for money as a way to improve his financial situation and take care of his indebtedness to the owner of the structure housing his school, Noble Kids Academy, Kano.
“I have three children. It was desperation to pay the debts I was owing that made me commit the crime,” he said.
Tanko said he had demanded a ransom of N6 million from the victim’s parents but he used the N100,000 that they could come up with to pay the salaries of his teachers.
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Hanifa’s uncle, Suraj Suleiman, confirmed the killing of his niece and the recovery of her remains within the premises of the mushroom private school in Tudunwada, Nasarawa Local Government Area of the state.
Suleiman said the suspects first took Hanifa to his wife for keeping but the woman refused to take custody of the victim.
He said: “After his wife rejected to keep Hanifa, he took her to Tudunwada where he operates the private school and fed her with tea laced with rat poison.
“After poisoning and killing her, the kidnapper cut her body into pieces and buried them within the school.”
It was gathered that the suspect was arrested on Thursday at a location on Zaria Road, Kano, while attempting to collect the second tranche of the ransom.
Little Hanifa had been lured into a commercial tricycle at about 5.00 p.m. on December 4, 2021, and driven away by her abductors.
Meanwhile, the Kano State government has ordered the indefinite closure of the school.
This is just as President Muhammadu Buhari expressed the nation’s condolences to the family of Hanifa whose body was discovered in a shallow grave after about two months of fruitless search.
The order for the closure of the school was contained in a statement issued on Friday in Kano by the Chief Public Relations Officer, State Ministry of Education, Mr Aliyu Yusuf.
The statement said that the state Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Sanusi Sa’idKiru, expressed shock over the incident.
“Following the alleged kidnap and subsequent murder of a five-year-old Miss Hanifa Abubakar, a pupil of Noble Kids Academy, Kwanar Dakata, by one of the school teachers, the Kano State government has ordered an indefinite closure and withdrawal of operational license of the school,” it said.
The statement quoted Sa’idKiru as saying “the directive for the closure and licence withdrawal is with immediate effect pending investigation of the case by the state police command.”
It said that the ministry had constituted a committee to assist in investigating the matter for justice to prevail.
The statement said the ministry would continue to work with the committee in checking the activities of private schools in the state to prevent future occurrences.
President Buhari, in his condolence message released by his Senior Special Assistant to the President (Media and Publicity), Garba Shehu, also praised the work of the police and the secret service in unravelling the mystery behind the disappearance of Hanifa, and particularly for the arrest of her teacher and his other accomplices suspected of the child’s kidnap and murder.
President Buhari said the family and the whole nation which followed up on Hanifa’s travail every day since her disappearance in December last year were hoping for the girl to have been rescued alive and well, adding, however, that the thorough and painstaking detective operation by the law enforcement bodies leading to the discovery of the corpse and the arrest of the suspects who have already made confessions was commendable, calling it an achievement that should instil more public confidence in the authorities.
“When breakthroughs like this happen, people will talk differently of law enforcement,” the president said.
Buhari prayed for the repose of the soul of the little schoolgirl and urged her parents to bear the sad loss with courage and fortitude in God.
The president urged the police and Ministry of Justice to uphold the integrity of the detective work that busted the case by preparing well and presenting a good case that would earn them the respect of the court.