Kano State High Court of Appeal Division has stopped the death sentence slammed on a Kano singer, Aminu Sharif, for blasphemy by an Upper Sharia Court on August 10, 2020.
The court, on Thursday, ordered a retrial of the case against Sharif, who had filed an appeal to challenge the sentence.
Delivering his judgement, the Chief Judge, Justice Nuraddeen Sagir, held that the lower court’s proceedings were characterised by irregularities.
Sagir also ordered that Sharif should be granted full legal representation and that the case should be tried before different judge.
Sharif’s lawyers had filed an appeal at the state Appeal Court on October 15, 2020, challenging the death penalty.
His conviction followed allegations that he had said that Sheikh Ibrahim Niasse, the Senegalese founder of the Islamic Tijjaniya sect, which has a large following across West Africa, “was bigger than Prophet Muhammad”.
