Abdulmalik Tanko, the proprietor of Noble Kids School, Kano State, has denied killing Hanifa Abubakar, a pupil of the school.
Hanifa, five-year-old pupil of the school who was reported missing after she was abducted by Tanko and subsequently found dead.
Tanko appeared on Monday at the High Court number 5, sitting at Audu Bako, presided over by Justice Usman Na’abba and denied killing her.
Though he had previously admitted to conspiracy, he denied the remaining three charges against him, including kidnap and subsequent killing of the young girl.
He, however, admitted to locking her up, he said, “I am not sure if I am the last person who saw her alive because I have earlier communicated to someone else about it. I did neither kill nor poisoned her. I left her sleeping and came back to see her dead.
“Myself, the second and third defendants did not know how she died.”
It was gathered that the little girl was whisked away to an unknown destination while coming back from an Islamiyya school known as Dahiru Bauchi, on Saturday, December 4, 2021.
Tanko was said to have demanded a N6million 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