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The president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, Mubarak Bala, 37, has been sentenced by a Kano State High Court, to 24 years imprisonment for blasphemy against Islam.
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Bala, two years after his arrest, was sentenced on Tuesday after he was earlier arraigned on an 18-count charge bordering on blasphemy, incitement, contempt of religion and breach of public peace.
The convict had pleaded guilty to the charges.
Delivering judgment, Justice Farouk Lawan, sentenced the convict to 24 years imprisonment.
The judge also ordered that the sentence term would commence from the day that the convict was arrested.
He also ordered that the sentences for all the 18 charges for which Bala was convicted should run concurrently.
Earlier, the Prosecution Counsel, Mr Muhammad Sani, told the court that the convict had on April 28, 2020, made a blasphemous post on his Facebook page.
Sanusi said the post was against Allah and Prophet Muhammad and had caused a major outrage in the city of Kano, where the convict hails from.
According to the prosecutor, the offence contravened the provision of Sections 114 and 210 of the Penal Code.
The Defence Counsel, Mr James Ibor, pleaded for leniency on behalf of his client, who concurred and promised not to repeat the blasphemous comments.
Blasphemous Bala was arrested in 2020 in Kaduna state, and transferred to Kano, his home state. He has been in detention since then.
On April 27 2020, Bala compared popular Lagos pastor and president of Synagogue Church of Nations Prophet TB Joshua to Prophet Mohammed.
“There’s no difference between prophet TB Joshua (S.A.W) of Lagos and Muhammadu (A.S.) of Saudi Arabia, it is better for our Nigeria to be terrorism,” Bala said wrote on his Facebook page.
In another post, Bala said, “Whoever believes religion has been duped – If you cant take blasphemy against Islam, criticizism of its doctrines, this page is not for you. I have not even started ooo.”
His posts were greeted with threats of arrest for blasphemy in the comment section. Unbothered about his stance against Islam, Bala said the threat was from ‘morons’ who should know better.
Days later, a group of lawyers petitioned the Kano State Police command to prosecute Bala for insulting Prophet Muhammad.
Bala renounced his Islamic faith in 2014.