Skip to main content

CSOs condemn death sentence on Kano singer over blasphemy

                          

Ten civil society organisations (CSOs) have condemned the death sentence handed down by a Kano Upper Shari’a Court to a singer Yahaya Sharif-Aminu for blaspheming Prophet Muhammad.

The CSOs are Committee for Relevant Art (CORA), AfricanDefenders (Pan-African Human Rights Defenders Network), Arterial Network Nigeria (host of Artwatch Africa in Nigeria), PEN Nigeria and Artists at Risk Connection (ARC), PEN America.

Others are Culture Advocates Caucus (CAC), Human Right Forum of Lead Africa International e.V, Germany, Intro Afrika (cultural organization advocating for social justice), Freemuse (international organization defending artistic freedom worldwide) and African Human Rights Network (AHRN).

Presiding judge Khadi Aliyu Kani had delivered the guilty verdict on Monday.

Mr Sharif-Aminu, a resident of Sharifai in Kano metropolis, was accused of committing blasphemy against the prophet in a song he circulated via WhatsApp in March.

The court also sentenced another man Umar Farouq of Sharada quarters in Kano metropolis to 10-year imprisonment for making “derogatory statements concerning the Almighty Allah in a public argument.”

Both men have one month to appeal the sentences.

However, in a joint statement on Friday, August 14, the CSOs said Sharif-Aminu’s conviction is in violation of international laws protecting freedom of expression.

“We, the undersigned civil society organizations strongly condemn the conviction and sentencing to death of young Nigerian gospel singer, Yahaya Sharif Aminu, for allegedly insulting the prophet Muhammad in a song he published. We are deeply concerned that his conviction and subsequent sentencing are in violation of Nigeria’s regional and international obligations to respect, protect and promote freedom of expression, opinion and belief,” they said.

The CSOs said they were concerned that the singer is reportedly being denied access to legal representation and to his immediate family.

“We therefore call on the Nigerian authorities to immediately and unconditionally overturn Mr. Sharif’s conviction and that he be immediately released. Pending his release, he must be guaranteed access to his lawyers and his family while in detention. We also call on the Nigerian government to urgently repeal all blasphemy laws, and to ensure that all individuals under its jurisdiction are afforded the right to freedom of religion, expression and opinion including through art and culture,” they said.

Global rights group Amnesty International has called on Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje to overrule the conviction, saying it violates Nigeria’s obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Kano State was among several northern states to introduce Sharia Law in 1999.

Following the circulation of the song, the singer’s family home was burned by irate youths who marched to the Kano Hisbah Command’s headquarters to demand his arrest.

It was gathered that Sharif-Aminu is a follower of Tijjaniya sect which prefers Ibrahim Nyass, a famous Senegalese Islamic scholar over Prophet Muhammad.

                                                       Credit-PMnews

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Parents charged in horrific murder of their 4-year-old daughter who was boiled alive on New Year's day

                      A Michigan couple has been charged with one of the most heinous murders that is being referred to as the "worst child death case" ever after their 4-year-old daughter died in a "scalding bath" in Michigan. Candice Diaz, 24, and Brad Fields, 28, were charged with murder, torture, and child abuse and both denied bail. Gabrielle died on New Year's Day after living a life filled with abuse. Doctors say she suffered multiple injuries, including severe burns on her limbs after she was in a bath with scalding hot water. A medical practitioner, who examined Gabrielle Barrett's body, described the alleged murder as the "worst child death case" in 27 years of his career, according to a court document. The document also allegedly states that the four-year-old was burned so badly that her big toe fell off, and police found melted skin in the drain. Gabrielle's mother, Diaz, and her partner, Fi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mrs Len Burton was a Cotswolds mother of three renowned for her perfect scones - but was also a colonel in Russian intelligence who sent Britain's atomic secrets from her privy

Ben Macintyre's book Agent Sonya tells the story of Soviet spy Colonel Ursula Kuczynski Ben Macintyre's book Agent Sonya tells story of  Colonel Ursula Kuczynski  She lived in Oxfordshire hamlet Great Rollright and was known as Mrs Burton  The spy was on active duty and had radio transmitter tuned to Soviet intelligence She fled to East Berlin in 1950 and retired as a spy before dying in 2000 aged 93 Her scones were the envy of the Oxfordshire hamlet of Great Rollright, where the friendly woman known as Mrs Burton lived in a stone farmhouse. In her late 30s, she moved there with her three children and husband Len just after the end of World War II.  She had a faint foreign accent but the locals took no notice and she soon became a stalwart of village life. They were unaware of the massive secret she was hiding — one that even now, 75 years later, had me reeling in amazement at the audacity and ingenuity it involved on her part.  And the unforgivable treache...
Post a Comment
Read more

Two children who were kidnapped by their househelp in Lagos found in Benin republic

                                         The Lagos state police command have rescued the two children of Mr and Mrs Aneru Mutana of Gbagada Phase 2, Lagos, who were kidnapped by their househelp simply identified as Busayo, on November 26th. A statement from the state police command spokesperson, CSP Chike Oti, says the children were found in the early hours of today December 2nd at a location close to Nigeria Seme border, in Benin Republic. On November 26th, Busola was instructed by Mrs Mutana to go and pick the children from school and take them home as she (Mrs Mutana) wasn't able to do so due to the nature of her job. Unfortunately for Madam, the househelp had carefully planned how to kidnap her children, a 6-year-old boy and a 3-year-old girl and executed her wicked plan e...
Post a Comment
Read more