Kano State High Court sitting at Audu Bako has sentenced a self-proclaimed atheist, Mubarak Bala, to 24 years imprisonment for an 18-count charge of blasphemy levelled against him by the State government.
Gatekeepers News reports that in 2020, Bala who is the president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria was arrested at his home in Kaduna State for blasphemy against Allah and Prophet Muhammad.
Bala reportedly caused outrage among Muslims in many parts of Northern Nigeria through his Facebook post on April 28, 2020.
He was subsequently arrested following a petition by a lawyer, S.S Umar, and other Islamic clerics and transferred to Kano State
Bala was then held for two years without charges with his whereabouts unknown to his family and lawyer before he was later charged.
On Tuesday, the suspect appeared before Justice Farouk Lawan of Kano High Court 4 and pleaded guilty to all the 18 counts he was charged with, saying that his Facebook posts were not meant to cause violence and that he would take precautions henceforth.
The court reminded him of his right to religion but warned that where his right stopped, that of others started, adding that there were many people with the same ideology as his but they did not go about insulting other people’s religion.
Bala after being slammed with 18 counts was subsequently sentenced to 24 years imprisonment.
