THE hair-raising gory story of the killing of a student of Alhaji Shehu Shagari college of education, Sokoto on religious ground has once again brought to the fore the result of deliberate negligence on the part of the law enforcement agencies to prosecute to a final conclusion series of flagrant violation of fundamental human rights of religious groups outside Moslem religion. Debora Samuel Yakubu, who hails from Niger state was in the second year in the aforementioned school.
ACCORDING to the story in the news media, her class has a Whatsap group where they exchange information on their courses of study. It happened that Debora, on an occasion replied a colleague that he was able to pass a course due to the grace of her religious mentor, Jesus Christ. This confession of faith drew outrage from her Moslem class mates who asked her to retract the profession which she declined.
ANOTHER story had it that a Moslem posted his religious matter on the Whatsapp platform which prompted Deborah to advice that religious matters should not be posted in the platform. This position ignited angst from the Moslem class mates who conspired to deal ruthlessly with her for daring to utter what they perceived as “blasphemy” against Moslem religion.
THE matter unexpectedly snowballed into dragging the lady outside the class room and was beaten to death, in addition to setting her corpse on fire; a dastardly act to say the least.
THE riling angle to the gory event is that when Deborah ran to the security enclosure for protection from the raving religious goons, the security agents feigned helpless to protect her as the monsters ferociously dragged her out of the security office and stoned her to death; a brutal act akin g to the medieval period in history.
WHEN the devastating story got to the police and government house, a directive was issued that the perpetrators should be arrested for prosecution. To the consternation of the civilized segment of the society, the largely uncouth and primitive minded youths and naïve adults organized themselves and started demonstrating with the aim of letting the killers of Deborah off the hook since according to their poor interpretation of their religion, the lady deserves instant death without due process of the law.
A CURIOUS dimension of the premedieval episode is the reinvention of the age long senseless indulgence of the Northern Moslems who at a slightest pretext of events both locally and internationally descend on killing the Igbo people resident in the Northern part of the country in addition to destroying their means of livelihood.
THIS demonic gambit played out in Sokoto as Igbo people who know next to nothing about what transpired in the college were subjected to attacks and vandalizing of their property and business premises. Again, the medieval and uncouth goons also descended on Christian worship centres by setting fire on the buildings and structures as if what transpired in the college had bearing with the hallowed premises of the church.
IT IS high time this barbaric acts was stopped by the northern political leaders if they really want this country to be a habitable place for all the ethno-religious groups in the country. Eminent personages like Sheik Gunmi who is a retired army medical doctor should be commended for pointedly condemning the dastardly act of the Moslem students of the college even as he called for diligent prosecution of the perpetrators of the heinous act to their fellow student.
