WATCH AFRICA: Nigerian Christian student accused of blasphemy stoned to death and set alight by angry Muslim mob

Christian student, Deborah Yakubu, who was killed in NIgeria by a Muslim mob. Picture: Facebook

Christian student, Deborah Yakubu, who was killed in NIgeria by a Muslim mob. Picture: Facebook

Published May 13, 2022

Share

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.

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.

— 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