By LUBABATU GARBA

An Upper Sharia Court in Kofar Kudu area of Kano state on Wednesday adjourned the trial of Sheikh Abduljabbar Kabara till August 18, 2021.

The Kano State Government charged the controversial cleric with blasphemy and incitement on July 16.

Although he denied the charge, the court headed by Justice Ibrahim Sarki Yola ordered that he be remanded in the correctional custody pending the determination of the charge against him.

At the resumed hearing on Wednesday, however, the prosecutor, Aisha Mahmud, urged the court to further adjourn the case on the strength that the state needed more time to prepare its case and bring all witnesses to court.

Responding, the lead counsel for the cleric, Sale Bakaro, argued that his client had been incarcerated for 12 days and it was unfortunate that the prosecutors did not prepare the charges against him within this period.

He argued that this shows that there is a deliberate attempt to delay the case.

Sheikh Abduljabbar’s lawyer then asked the prosecution to provide them with their witnesses’ names, evidence, references, address as well as brief statements and a copy of the defendant’s statement to the police.

He also demanded that the alleged blasphemous audio, video, photograph or other document to be used in court be provided to them before the hearing as provided for by the law.

The prosecutor, however urged the court to adjourn the case to August 25 to enable them put their house in order but Abduljabbar’s lawyer asked the court to adjourn to August 11.

Ruling, Justice Yola adjourned the case to August 18 and ordered that the cleric continued to be remanded in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCS).

Daily Trust reports that Sheikh Abduljabbar looked frail in court and was asked to sit down during the proceeding upon an application by his lawyer.

Recall that reports had circulated that he was feeling unwell in detention, but the NCS denied the report. (Daily Trust)

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