YAHAYA Sharif, a 22-year-old musician, has been sentenced to death by a court in Kano, North-west Nigeria for blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad.

According to reports, Sharif, a resident of Sharifai in Kano metropolis, was accused of committing blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad in a song he shared on WhatsApp in March 2020.

Subsequently, the singer’s home was razed down by angry protesters who marched on to Kano Hisbah command’s headquarters to lay a complaint against the actions of Sharif.

In a verdict delivered by Aliyu Kani, the judge presiding the case at the Kano Upper Shari’a Court, Sharif was sentenced to death by hanging.

He was convicted based on Section 382 (b) of Kano penal code of 2000, Premium Times reports.

It was gathered that the convicted singer was disowned by his father, Aminu Sharif, who said that his son acted on his volition and doesn’t share the same religious views.

“I want to categorically inform the general public that blasphemy is not my ideology, and I promise to arrest him (my son) and hand him over to security agents whenever he is found,” Aminu Sharif said.

“If I had the authority to punish him by law, I will do that right away.”

Meanwhile, in 2019, a Shariah court sitting in Tudun Wada, Zaria, Kaduna State, declared three suspected rapists guilty and sentenced them to one-year imprisonment with an option of N7,000 and 20 lashes of the cane.

The rapists were arrested by a local voluntary community association known as Gyara Kayanka, who said the victims had been regularly raped for several months before the suspects were arrested.