A Kano-born atheist, Mubarak Bala, has been sentenced to 24 years imprisonment after pleading guilty to all the 18-count charges bordering on incitement and breach of public peace leveled against him.
Mr Bala, who is the president of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, was arrested at his home in Kaduna on April 28, 2020, and taken to Kano, where complaints of blasphemy and incitement were lodged against him.
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There has been a campaign for his release or trial, with activists saying he was out of touch with his wife and lawyer.
When the judge asked him whether he knows the consequences of his guilty plea, Mr Bala insisted on not changing his initial plea.
Mr Bala’s lawyer, James Ibor, had earlier tried to persuade his client to change his plea, but he insisted that he was guilty to charges.
The lawyer however cited frustration and fear as reasons for his client’s guilty plea, saying his client had been in prison for two years.
In his plea of leniency, Mr Bala however said the intent of his social media posts was not to cause violence. He, therefore, promised not to repeat the blasphemous posts in the future.
