Justice Kabiru Auta of a Kano High Court  on Wednesday sentenced the killer of a Kano-based business tycoon, philanthropist and Yoruba leader, Alhaji Ganiyu Akanbi Bello, to death by hanging.

The accused person, Abubakar Abdulrahaman (a.k.a Daddy), 28, was found guilty on one-count charge of culpable homicide, punishable by death, while he was discharged and acquitted in another charge of armed robbery.

Abubakar was accused of murdering Bello on June 5, 2014 in his residence at the GRA Nassarawa, opposite Kano Race Course, when he stabbed the deceased in the heart with a kitchen knife.


The prosecution, led by M.M. Sulaiman of the state Ministry of Justice, and assisted by the nominal complainant counsel, J.I. Macaulay of Kehinde Olaitan Chambers, called seven witnesses and tendered several exhibits.

The exhibits included, the knife he used to stab the deceased and his Blackberry phone.

Making his last plea for the accused person, his counsel from the Legal Aid Council, B. Adama, urged the court to temper justice with mercy because of his aged mother, wife and children.