…as Sheikh Kabara keeps mum before judge
A Kano State Upper Shari’ah Court sitting at Kofar Kudu, on Thursday, ordered mental and hearing checks on controversial Islamic cleric, Sheikh Abduljabbar Nasiru Kabara.
Presiding judge, Ibrahim Sarki Yola, issued the order, following a request by prosecution counsel, Surajo Sa’ida.
The accused Muslim cleric had during trial kept mute, refusing to answer all the new charges brought against him by the Kano State Government.
Justice Sarki-Yola then ordered that a psychiatrist at Dawanau Psychiatric Hospital, Kano, should examine Sheikh Kabara on his mental health, while an audiologist at the Murtala Muhammad Specialists Hospital should check his hearing ability to determine why he was dumb while the new charges were read before him in court.
Earlier, prosecution counsel, Surajo Sa’ida, had read four new count charges against the cleric bearing on blasphemy and using offensive words against Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) during his teachings, which are against the provisions of Section 382(b) of Kano State Shari’ah Law, 2000.
But Justice Sarki-Yola ruled that Sheikh Kabara’s silence to all the charges implied that he’s pleading not guilty as provided by Section 278 (i) of ACGL, 2019.
Defence counsel, Saleh M. Bakaro, earlier argued that the prosecution counsel lacked the right to withdraw the initial First Information Report form and replace it with fresh charges.
The presiding judge, however, ruled that the form could be replaced by the prosecuting counsel in line with the provisions of Section 390 (i) of ACGL, 2015.
But the defence counsel, Barrister Bakaro, requested for all the court’s proceedings from the date of the first arraignment to enable his client appeal to the Kano State High Court, especially on the replacement of the first charges in the first FIR with a new one and the subsequent reintroduction of four new Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) by the Kano State Government.
He argued that the Shari’ah court lacked the jurisdiction to allow the SANs to appear before it, adding that this contradicted its provisions.