It is difficult to think of any other society where life is becoming worthless daily and where no premium is placed on life or where its sanctity is not upheld like ours. Ours is a society replete with mindless killings and wanton destruction. There can only be one explanation for the ever-increasing spate of killings: failure by the society to punish offenders and the immediate consequence is that anybody can be killed and nobody is safe.
As has been the case in our country, every day we wake up to another spectacle of some mindless and egregious story of killings that leaves one numb, and dumbfounded and wondering whether there is any chance of the nation ever coming out of this limbo.
There have been several dastardly acts committed against this nation with thousands of souls killed just for the devil of it. These agents of the devil are everywhere. They are in the churches as pastors, they are in mosques as imams or sheiks; they are in the creeks and bushes or forests as bandits, kidnappers, or ritualists. Sadly, those who should serve as the moral compass of the society have since abdicated their responsibilities for filthy lucre.
On December 4, 2021, in Nasarawa Local Government Area of Kano State, Mr and Mrs. Abubakar Abdulsalam waved their beautiful daughter, Hanifa, goodbye as she left for school, oblivious of the fact they were actually waving her eternal goodbyes and that that will be the very last time they would set their eyes on their first and only child alive. What a tragedy! To think that the source of this unquantifiable disaster is no other than the one paid to protect and guide their daughter as her teacher, makes it even more intolerable.
According to the report, Abdulmalik Mohammed Tanko, a teacher of Nobel Kids Academy and North West Preparatory School, on the day abducted five-year-old Hanifa while on her way to the Islamic school, and demanded a ransom of N6m.
According to the father while speaking to the media, Hanifa was very friendly, jovial and loved by all who associated with her. Only a heart made of steel can watch that adorable little girl scream and beg to be spared and not be touched. Tanko and his cohorts clearly are animals and unfit and unsuitable to share common space with the rest of humanity. They should be dispatched as quickly as possible to where they truly belong; in hell.
Grieving the death of their only child the father had this to say: “She was the first and the only child of the family. My wife and I were fond of her. Her permanent absence has already started to cause us sleepless nights. I am praying to the Almighty Allah to grant her gentle soul Aljeena.”
May God grant this family the fortitude to bear this completely avoidable death; coming from somebody who should have known better but preferred to cause them misery, pains and agony.
It is not the first time that we will be experiencing this; many of our young girls are daily falling prey to lurking predators. Teenagers are killing their so-called girlfriends for money-making rituals, little girls are daily defiled. Women are killed for ritual purposes and their mutilated bodies most times buried in shallow graves. Some of these mysterious deaths we have unraveled; many more go undetected.
Meanwhile, the Kano State government last Monday announced revocation of certificates of all existing private schools in Kano, while a panel comprising of the ministry of Justice, Department of State Service, (DSS), Civil Defense and other agencies has been set-up to look into the revalidation of all private schools in Kano State.
Similarly, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, the Governor of Kano State, has promised to abide by the constitutional provision in his capacity as the governor to assent to death sentence in the circumstance, when passed by the Court.
Ganduje made the promise during his condolence visit to Abubakar’s family residence in Dakata/Kawaji, on Monday.
“We have good confirmation from the court handling the process that justice would be done. No stone would be left unturned. Whoever is found guilty of this heinous offense will also face death, without wasting any time. As a government, we have already started the process.”
While, I do not think it was appropriate to order blanket revocation of the licences of all private school owners, I do completely concur with the governor on the promise to carry out whatever judgement the court would pass on these devil incarnates.
Governor Ganduje can follow through the process of making proper scrutiny of private schools, but he should as well allow education to go on while that is being done. Would the governor have ordered the closure of all public schools if the teacher is with a public school? That action is tantamount to killing a fly with a sledge hammer. You would also trust that given the nature of civil servants, the governor might have inadvertently opened up an avenue for civil servants to exploit innocent private school owners. Everybody should not be punished for the sin of a few persons.
The governor must ensure that private investors are not exploited in the name of sanitizing the school system. While the outcome of the case is awaited, Governor Ganduje has my total support to ensure that these agents of death get their just reward. They must pay the price for their indiscretion and callous act. It is an open secret that the reason crime has continued to fester is because people no longer get punished for their nefarious deeds. Rather than speak in one voice to condemn crime, we are divided along ethnic and religious lines.
“The arrested suspects will definitely face the wrath of the law. They are really wicked to the highest order, especially the principal suspect, Abdulmalik Muhammad Tanko, who was the late Hanifa’s teacher for a long time. She had a high regard for him, but he misused it and cheated her. This is somebody that after he knew he had killed my daughter, for many days kept threatening us to pay the ransom or else he would kill my daughter. When he finally collected the money, instead of us to receive our daughter alive, we ended up receiving her rotten corpse.
“I am happy that the federal and Kano state governments have all expressed sadness over the gruesome murder and pledged to secure justice for the late Hanifa, after diligent prosecution of the gruesome murder.”
That was the distraught father calling for justice. Can we, for once, ensure that we grant the wish of Hanifa’s father? Can we ensure that these evil men get their just reward for their sins? That is the very least we can do now to assuage the grief of the parents of Hanifa and to send the right signals to all those who have made causing others pains, agony, grief, hardship and sadness their pastime realise that they will not be spared by the law, irrespective of their religious beliefs, tribes or status in the society.
