The Sharia Appeal Court in the central Nigerian city...

The Sharia Appeal Court in the central Nigerian city of Minna, postponed the appeal of a young couple of former lovers who were sentenced to be stoned to death after a new defence lawyer moved to take over the case. Chief judge Grand Khadi Abdumumumi Enagi agreed to delay the hearing until May 6 after a lawyer said he had received instructions to replace the couple's legal team.
The lawyer, Hussein Umar Garba, came to the court armed by a letter signed by the defendants whom he said had enaged him to defend them through the Abuja law firm headed by Hauwa Ibrahim, a well-known Sharia defence lawyer.
The couple's current counsel, Abdufatai Adesina Suleiman, said he had not been informed of his dismissal and asked for an adjournment for the defence "to put our house in order".
Suleiman was hired by the women's rights group Baobab to defend the couple.
Fatima Usman and her former boyfriend Ahmadu Ibrahim, both now thought to be 33, were convicted of adultery in 2001 after Usman's father complained to a Sharia judge that Ibrahim was not paying support for their illegitimate child.
The pair did not come to court.