Local authorities said that Sarimu Mohammed, 50, convicted...

Local authorities said that Sarimu Mohammed, 50, convicted by a sharia court in northern Nigeria for raping a nine-year old girl will be stoned to death after he made no attempt to appeal the sentence. Mohammed, married with two children, was convicted in May by a lower sharia court in the north-western state of Jigawa after admitting at three different court sessions that he committed the offence. "Nobody has faulted the judgment of the court so he will certainly be stoned to death because that is what sharia says," said Usman Zakari Dutse, Jigawa state's press director. "I cannot say exactly when he will be executed, but this is a sharia state and the governor has said nobody will be allowed to violate the laws of the land and go scotfree," Dutse said.