Kano Court Sentences Two Men To Death For Killing Housewife, Six Children

A Kano State High Court has sentenced two men to death by hanging for killing a 35-year-old housewife, Fatima Abubakar, and her six children at Dorayi Chiranchi Quarters, Kano State.

The court, presided over by Justice Nasiru Saminu, delivered the judgment on Friday, November 6, after finding Umar Auwalu and Yakubu Dayyabu guilty of culpable homicide arising from the January 17, 2026 attack.

The two convicts were also sentenced to life imprisonment with hard labour each for conspiracy and armed robbery.

However, the court discharged and acquitted the third defendant, Isyaku Yakubu, after ruling that the prosecution failed to establish credible evidence linking him to the killings.

Delivering judgment, Justice Saminu described the murder of the woman and her six children as a horrific crime that challenged the conscience of society.

He noted that the victims had been entitled to the protection of their home but were attacked by people they should have been able to trust.

The judge particularly observed that Auwalu was a nephew of the deceased.

He lamented that seven lives had been permanently lost, expressing sympathy for the surviving family members.

“How I wish there is a punishment heavier than this. My emphasis is not to administer vengeance but justice,” the judge said.

Explaining the acquittal of the third defendant, Saminu said the prosecution had presented evidence of telephone conversations between him and the other defendants but failed to establish the contents of those conversations or demonstrate that they amounted to conspiracy.

The judge also noted that evidence before the court indicated that Isyaku was attending a Qur’anic graduation ceremony in Gano when the incident occurred.

Earlier, the Kano State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Abdulkarim Kabiru-Maude, told the court that the defendants committed the offences at about 11:30 a.m. on January 17, 2026.

He said the defendants allegedly armed themselves with sticks, an iron rod and a cutlass before entering Fatima’s residence, where they stole two mobile phones and N200,000.

According to the prosecution, the attackers assaulted Fatima with sticks and an iron rod before striking her head with a sewing machine, resulting in her death.

Her six children, identified as Maimuna, 17; Aisha, 16; Bashir, 13; Abubakar, 10; Faruk, seven; and Abdulsalam Haruna, a toddler, were also attacked with dangerous weapons.

The prosecution further told the court that Faruk and Abdulsalam were thrown into a well within the premises after the attack.

During the proceedings, Auwalu pleaded guilty to the charges but denied throwing the children into the well, while Dayyabu and Isyaku pleaded not guilty.

To establish its case, the prosecution presented eight witnesses and tendered 30 exhibits, including medical reports, confessional statements, a bloodstained iron rod, bloodstained clothing, the recovered N200,000, two mobile phones and a flash drive containing audio-visual recordings.

The defence presented five witnesses during the trial.

Following the judgment, Kabiru-Maude commended the presiding judge and the legal team of the Kano State Ministry of Justice for their work in prosecuting the case.

The Attorney-General said the state government was prepared to pursue the implementation of the death sentences if the convicts did not exercise their right of appeal within the period allowed by law.

The January killings had claimed the lives of seven members of the same family, leaving Haruna Bashir, the deceased woman’s husband and father of the children, to bear the loss.