Kano State Suspends Operating Licenses of All Private Schools in the State
Following the brutal murder of five-year-old Hanifa Abubakar in Kano, the state government has suspended the operating licenses of all private schools in the state.
Hanifa attended Noble Kids Academy from where she went missing on December 2, 2021; but police detectives arrested her teacher and school proprietor, Abdulmalik Tanko, who confessed he poisoned her and buried her body in the school compound.
The incident elicited angry reactions across the country, and it even got to the Senate, where federal legislators condemned the evil in strong terms. The Kano State Ministry of Education on Monday suspended the licenses of all private schools in the state in the wake of the incident, with a promise to reinstate the licenses of individual private schools after due revalidation.
The Commissioner for Education, Sanusi Kiru, said the government suspended the licenses to allow adequate investigations into the murder of Hanifa and to allow for recertification of schools across the state.
He said a special committee has been set up for this purpose – adding that the committee comprises representatives from the Ministry of Justice, the State Security Service (SSS), Civil Defence, and other security agencies in Kano.
“We are all aware of the ongoing case concerning Hanifa’s death as she was gruesomely murdered by a suspect called Abdulmalik Tanko who is the proprietor of Noble Kids Academy,” Kiru announced. “In view of the sad incident, especially regarding how she was murdered in the private school, the state government has decided to withdraw the certificates of all private schools for revalidation.”
Although Tanko has been arraigned before a magistrate court in the state, angry youths attacked his Noble Kids Academy building and set it ablaze on Sunday night. Kano State PPRO Abdullahi Kiyawa said several parts of the school was destroyed, but that no suspects have been arrested yet.
