By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor
A Nigerian musician who has spent more than six years in prison under a death sentence for allegedly blasphemous song lyrics must wait even longer for a Supreme Court hearing after justices canceled his long-awaited case.
Yahaya Sharif-Aminu, a Sufi Muslim musician from Kano State, was sentenced to death after sharing song lyrics on WhatsApp that some considered blasphemous. Nigeria’s Supreme Court had been scheduled to hear his case Thursday, but the hearing was canceled days before it was set to take place. No new date has been announced, according to the legal advocacy group ADF International, which is providing support to Sharif-Aminu.
The court cited a new directive requiring earlier-filed cases to be heard first. ADF International noted that death penalty cases are supposed to receive priority before the Supreme Court and that all parties had already submitted revised briefs.
Thursday’s hearing had been set in February and was expected to fix a date for oral arguments on whether northern Nigeria’s death penalty blasphemy laws are constitutional.
The hearing would have been only the second time the court convened on the case; the first hearing took place in September 2025, after which counsel for the Kano State government warned that if the court upheld the lower court’s decision, “we will execute him publicly.”
All parties submitted revised briefs by November 2025.
“Every delay in Yahaya’s case is another day he must spend behind bars, for nothing more than peacefully expressing his faith in song lyrics,” said Sean Nelson, senior counsel for ADF International’s Global Religious Freedom. Nelson called on the court to schedule a new hearing without further delay and urged international bodies to press Nigerian authorities on their constitutional and international religious freedom obligations.
Sharif-Aminu was arrested in March 2020 after sharing self-composed song lyrics on WhatsApp. In the days following his post, a mob burned down his family’s home. A Sharia court, the Islamic law tribunal that adjudicates religious law in northern Nigeria, convicted him without legal representation and sentenced him to death by hanging on Aug. 10, 2020.
The Kano State High Court overturned the conviction in January 2021, citing the absence of legal counsel at the original trial, but ordered a retrial under the same blasphemy law, which still carries the death penalty. After a court of appeal upheld the retrial order in 2022, Sharif-Aminu filed his appeal with the Supreme Court.
He has remained in prison without bail throughout.
His legal counsel argues the blasphemy law violates Nigeria’s Constitution and the country’s international obligations on freedom of expression and religion.
Kola Alapinni, a Nigerian international human rights lawyer who serves as lead counsel for Sharif-Aminu, said the blasphemy laws have long been used to target minority Muslims, Christians and other religious minorities in Nigeria. “Yahaya Sharif-Aminu has waited for justice long enough,” Alapinni said.
The European Parliament passed urgent resolutions calling for Sharif-Aminu’s immediate and unconditional release in April 2023 and again in February 2025, with the second resolution urging Nigeria to lead global efforts to abolish blasphemy laws.
In May 2024, three U.N. special rapporteurs, Alexandra Xanthaki, Nazila Ghanea and Irene Khan, issued a joint statement urging Nigeria to abolish the death penalty for blasphemy, citing Sharif-Aminu’s case as an example of such laws being misused to target religious minorities.
A U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention found that his imprisonment violated international human rights law, ruling that his rights to freedom of religion, expression and fair trial had been breached and called for his release.
In April 2025, a West African regional court, the Economic Community of West African States Treaty Court, relied on Sharif-Aminu’s case in holding that Nigeria’s blasphemy laws should be repealed.
Following a country visit to Nigeria in June 2026, U.N. Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, Ghanea, cited Kano State’s blasphemy law as a departure from fundamental rights guaranteed in the Nigerian Constitution.
Nigeria is one of only seven countries in the world with a death penalty blasphemy law.
A ruling in Sharif-Aminu’s favor at the Supreme Court would have the potential to overturn the Sharia-based blasphemy statutes in northern Nigeria, offering greater legal protection to Christian converts, minority Muslims and other religious minorities facing accusations that frequently trigger mob violence, ADF International said.