SUPREME Court on Thursday began hearings in a landmark blasphemy case that could have far-reaching implications for the application of Sharia Law in the country’s north and the protection of constitutional rights nationwide.
News Point Nigeria reports that at the center of the case is Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, a 24-year-old Sufi Muslim musician, who in 2020 was sentenced to death by a Sharia Court in Kano State for allegedly circulating song lyrics on WhatsApp that insulted the Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
Sharif-Aminu’s case has since moved through the courts, with the Kano State High Court overturning his conviction but ordering a retrial, a ruling his legal team is now challenging at the Supreme Court.
His lawyers are asking the apex court not only to quash the retrial but also to issue a broader ruling striking down death penalties for blasphemy and adultery under Sharia Penal codes.
Kola Alapinni, lead counsel to Sharif-Aminu, told reporters outside the courtroom that his client’s case is about more than one man’s fate.
“All various aspects of the sharia penal code that offend the constitution and Nigeria’s international obligations, we cannot have them on our statute books,” Alapinni said, after the court granted his team additional time to file their appeal.
Sharia law operates alongside common law in 12 northern states, creating a dividebetween secular governance and Islamic legal codes.
Even though found guilty, Sharif-Aminu’s case has drawn global attention from rights groups, Western governments, and international organizations.
According to his lawyer, Sharif-Aminu’s ordeal began when he shared lyrics in a WhatsApp group praising his spiritual leader as “more pious than Prophet Muhammad (SAW),” a comment that sparked outrage in Kano.
Kano’s lead counsel, Lamido Abba Sorondinki, maintained that the state government would defend the punishment. “Anybody who has uttered any word that touches the integrity of the holy Prophet, we’ll punish him,” Sorondinki told reporters.
Standing nearby, Alapinni retorted with a laugh: “My learned friend is not the Supreme Court, that’s just the opposition.”
Sharif-Aminu remains in detention as the appeal continues.
