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

Abuja-based businessman beaten to death by unknown assailants in Enugu

An Abuja-based businessman was beaten to death by unknown assailants in Enugu. The deceased, Chinedu Nzegwu popularly known as Obroshoo by friends, was attacked by the assailants few days before his return to Abuja. They reportedly hit him with a stick on the head leaving him for dead. Late Nzegwu, a Pure and Industrial Chemistry graduate of the University of Port Harcourt,  is a former student of Dennis Memorial Grammar School DMGS, Onitsha, Anambra State. His friends and family members have taken to Facebook to mourn his tragic death. One of them Nwachi Viktor, wrote: "Murdered in cold blood in Enugu by fellow ndi igbo. Another young and hardworking man from Onitsha.He was my junior in Dennis Memorial Grammar school Onitsha. Trying to understand why they had to beat him to death,he was never a thief and came from a good home. Rest in peace Chinedu Nzegwu. No one is safe in Nigeria!"
Post a Comment
Read more

Man raises alarm after spotting a civilian man roaming the streets of Abuja with an AK47

                                                   A Nigerian man, Olumide Olaniyan, has raised alarm after spotting another man believed to be a civilian, pictured above, roaming the streets in Nyanya, Abuja with an AK47 hung on his body. Read what Olumide wrote below I was driving along Mararaba-Nyanya road this morning. I saw this man with a gun that looks like AK-47 or an automatic gun, I initially thought he is a security personnel, but, his dress, shoes and overall shabby look suggests otherwise. I was tempted to go ask him about his ID card and why he was such a psychological violence to onlookers. Then, I remembered Maama Sunde's counsel those days I used to do student activism at the University of Bariga, "ma se...
Post a Comment
Read more

Police launch manhunt for 215 escaped prisoners after jailbreak in Uganda

  Authorities in Uganda have launched a manhunt to recapture more than 200 prisoners who escaped from jail after stealing weapons and fled to the north-eastern part of the country.   The jailbreak occurred on Wednesday afternoon, September 16, near the army barracks in the district of Moroto in northeast Uganda.   The country's prison commissioner, Johnson Byabashaija told AFP on Thursday September 16, that the inmates overpowered their guards and escaped with weapons in after a shootout.    "The prisoners seized guns from the armoury at a government prison in Moroto, about 460km from Kampala, before dashing for the cover of nearby mountains," said the commissioner.     "About 215 inmates are still on the run. Uganda's prison service, working with the police and the army with support from ground and air assets, have been deployed to rearrest the inmates," he said.    "There is concern that some guns are in the wrong hands, but these...
Post a Comment
Read more