Cape Town – Violence broke out at a tertiary college in the northern Nigerian city of Sokoto recently after a female Christian student, Deborah Yakubu, allegedly made blasphemous comments against Islam on her WhatsApp status update, BBC News Africa reported.
The region is predominantly Muslim, with Christian-Muslim strife in modern Nigeria tracing back to 1953.
Today, religious violence in Nigeria is dominated by the Boko Haram insurgency, which aims to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria.
This is the Chief Imam of the Nigerian National Mosque btw.
— suzie. (@suzieoff) May 13, 2022
Not a condemnation of the extra judicial killing of a Christian student, not condolences to the family of the murdered, not a call for justice.
Rather he's supporting and inciting violence. https://t.co/AlqzZYMcKU
A police spokesperson in Sokoto state told the BBC that security forces intervened to restore calm and an investigation was under way, citing a report by Kenya-based newspaper The Star.
Citing a report from police, dozens of Muslim students of Shehu Shagari College of Education went on rampage after fellow student, Deborah Yakubu, made a statement on social media that they considered offensive against the Prophet Muhammad, Sanusi Abubakar, a Sokoto police spokesperson said in a statement.
The killers reportedly shared a video of the gory incident showing them stoning the woman to death and burning her body. They kept shouting “Allahu Akbar” (“Allah is the greatest”) while filming, according to eyewitnesses, the Union of Catholic Asian News reported.
The killing of Deborah Yakubu by some fellow students at the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto on grounds of alleged religious blasphemy is wrong. The culprits should be prosecuted. pic.twitter.com/tNJh0CcPOZ
— Kingsley Moghalu (@MoghaluKingsley) May 13, 2022
The brutal killing of Yakubu is not an isolated incident, writes Leo Igwe from Modern Ghana.com.
“Many Muslims and non-Muslims adjudged to have insulted Islam or its prophet have suffered a similar fate in the region. In 2007, some Muslim students in Gombe lynched their female Christian teacher for desecrating the Quran.”
Igwe argues that there have been other violent attacks and murders of alleged blasphemers in Muslim-dominated areas in Kano, Niger, and other parts of Islamic Northern Nigeria.
Persons accused of blasphemy have been sentenced to death by sharia courts in Kano.
“Others like Nigerian Humanist, Mubarak Bala, have been given long prison sentences. Muslim clerics and state officials have openly and publicly endorsed the execution of blasphemers,” a report by Modern Ghana stated.
IOL