An Upper Sharia Court sitting at Nomansland of Sabon Gari area in Kano State yesterday sentenced an HIV/AIDS patient to death by stoning for raping and infecting a 12-year-old girl with the dreaded disease.

Ubale Sa’idu Dotsa, 63, pleaded guilty seven times before the judge, Justice Farouk Ahmad, handed down the verdict. The judge said he relied on Sharia law guided by the Quran in handing down the death sentence.

Mallam Dotsa of Dotsa town, Kumbotso Local Government, was accused of luring and defiling Shamsiyya, from a small town of Gezawa, last month.

Mallam Dotsa claimed that Shamsiyya paid him unnecessary visit at his shop on several occasions in the night and that he was uncomfortable with the visit. He said he had forced her to leave his shop because he feared something wrong might happen between them until the devil instigated him to commit sexual intercourse with her.

Upon being medically examined at the state-owned Murtala Muhammad Hospital, it was discovered that Shamsiyya had become infected with HIV/AIDS as a result of the forceful intercourse by Dotsa, who claimed that he was not aware of his HIV status before the act.

When the court registrar, Uba Alasan Rimi, read the case before the court, the accused instantly pleaded guilty and showed remorse to the evil act, according to a report this morning in the Abuja newspaper Peoples Daily, explaining that in Islamic Shari’ah law, a married person is stoned to death if charged with committing adultery and pleaded guilty.

“Mr. Ahmad, then assigned the registrar, Mr. Rimi, to write a letter to the Kano State governor, Dr. Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, for recommendation,” the report said.

It quoted the convict as describing the incident as fateful and pleading for mercy from the court and government.

“This is a fateful incident. She used to come to me in the night and I shunned her severally and thereafter, the devil whispered to me that I should have sexual intercourse with her. I didn’t know that I am HIV positive but I beg for mercy from the court and the government. I really regret my actions,” he said.

Giving further clarification on the judgment, an Islamic cleric in Kano State Hisbah Board, Malam Kabiru Muhammad Dabo, said: “This man has committed a very big sin and deserved this punishment. This is because he committed adultery on an under-aged girl, secondly, he carries a dreaded disease which is infectious and infected the girl; this is tantamount to killing a person and Islamically, the punishment of killing a person is to also to kill the killer.”

Update news