An angry mob of protesters recently burnt up a level 2 student at the Shehu Shagari college of education, Sokoto , Deborah Samuel, due to claims of blasphemy against the holy prophet Muhammed.
Following this development, several notable Nigerians have reacted to the incident.
The sultan of Sokoto in a statement released by the Sultanate council condemned the incident in its totality, and further urged residents to stay calm and ensure peaceful co-existence amongst all.
Popular Nigerian politician, Adamu Garba said just like no christian will take respect for Jesus lightly, so also no Muslim will tolerate denigrating prophet Mohammed, referring to any such against the prophet Mohammed as a red line that can not be compromised
The Grand Mufti of Conference of Islamic Organizations, (CIO), Sheik Dikrullah Shafi’I , has described the conduct of the students who killed Deborah Samuel as unlawful, inhuman and that it does not in any way represent the position of Islam, while he established that “Islam places huge value on human soul”
Former Inspector General of Police’s son, and son-in-law to Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, Jamil Abubakar, from his viewpoint, said that blasphemy is frowned on by all religions. He emphasised that the punishment for blasphemy is death, adding that people should respect others religion.
The vice president of Nigeria, Yemi Osinbajo on his part, described the incident as “deeply distressing and very unfortunate”. He then referred to the President and the Sultan of Sokoto as having condemned the act respectively, stressing that there is no justification for extrajudicial killings, seeing there are legal channels to address any misdeed.
A personal assistant to the Sokoto Finance Commissioner, Anas Mohammed Sani, claimed that the victim, Ms. Samuel was murdered in cold blood because she was careless with her words. In his statement, “if anyone will repeat it tomorrow, the probability of being served same meal is 99.9%”
The General Overseer of Redeemed Christian Church of God, R.C.C.G, Enoch Adeboye, in his own words, claimed “religion is not the problem of Nigeria”, he further explained that when the Kaduna-Abuja train attack occurred, Christians were not separated from Muslims to be killed, nor did the bullets distinguish one from the other. So he concluded that the killing of the female student had nothing to do with religion, in his own opinion.
The self styled Imam of Peace, an Australian Shia Muslim influencer, popularly known as “Imam of peace” took to his official twitter handle, and contributed that Prophet Mohammed never killed anyone for insulting him or even throwing rocks at him.
According to the Australian muslim influencer, Mohammed’s neighbor used to pile garbage at his doorstep daily, and one day when there was no garbage, and he found out that she was ill, he went visiting her, and wished her well. He made this comment via his Twitter handle @Imam of peace, with #DEBORAH following his comments.
He went ahead to praise the sultan of Sokoto for what he referred to as his “wisdom and swift condemnation”
The British government joined the calls on the government of Nigeria to bring the perpetrators to justice as President Muhammed Buhari ordered a probe into the incident.
Recall that, according to reports, two suspects have since been arrested, over the killing of their female colleague, Deborah Samuel, in Sokoto
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