It has been revealed that Abdulmalik Mohammed Tanko, the proprietor of Noble Kids Nursery and Primary School, Kwana, Kano, visited the parents of Hanifa Abubakar, a five-year-old pupil of the school, after she went missing in December.
Tanko, it was learnt confessed to the crime when he was paraded at the Kano Police Command Headquarters, earlier, on Friday.
Tanko had narrated how he abducted the victim, kept her in his house and poisoned her afterwards.
He had dug a hole and buried her in one of his schools.
The uncle of Late Hanifa disclosed that Tanko shed tears when he visited the parents to console them.
He said “He was full of tears when he visited the family to console them over the abduction.”
Tanko poisoned Hanifa and buried her in the school yet still demanded a N6 million naira ransom.
Tanko had demanded a N6 million ransom from the parents of the child and in the process of collecting part of the money, he was arrested.
He had failed to disclose that the victim had been killed.
When he was arrested at the Kano Police Command headquarters on Friday, he told journalists that he poisoned the girl with a rat poison that he bought for N100.
When Hanifa’s mother saw Tanko at the police headquarters on Friday morning, she charged at him, asking why he did such to her family.
Hanifa’s uncle, Suraj Suleiman, confirmed the killing and recovery of her remains at a mushroom private school in Tudunwada, Nasarawa local government area of Kano.
Tanko was Hanifa’s school teacher, and there are claims that he killed her because the girl could recognise him.
According to him, the abductor first took her to his wife, but the wife rejected to keep her.
“After his wife rejected to keep Hanifa, he took her to Tudunwada where he operates a private school and then laced her tea with rat poison,” he said.
“After she was poisoned to death, the kidnappers then cut her body into pieces and buried it within the school.”
It was gathered that the abductors were arrested around Zaria Road in Kano last night while attempting to collect the second tranche of the ransom.
The 5-year-old was whisked away on December 4, 2021 by the kidnappers, who came in a commercial tricycle and lured her to enter for a joyride.
The incident occurred at 5pm on Thursday when she and other neighbourhood children were returning from an Islamic school.
This sad occurrence has caught attention of Nigerians on Twitter demanding justice for the poor girl with #JusticeForHanifa.
