Christian stoned to death after blasphemy claims
A YOUNG Christian woman was stoned to death and her body set on fire by a mob after she was accused of blasphemy.
Deborah Yakubu was killed by irate Muslim students at Shehu Shagari school in the north-western Nigerian city of Sokoto.
The economics student had sent a voice note to a college WhatsApp group complaining there were too many religious posts in a group meant only for academic updates.
Her translated message said: ‘The group is not created for sending nonsense things. It is created to send past questions, if there is a test, or if we are given assignments, not all these nonsense things.’ The note began to circulate among Muslim students, with some alleging Ms Yakubu had ‘blasphemed’.
Security guards helped her take refuge in a school room but were unable to protect her from angry youths.
After her horrific killing on Thursday, her body and the school building were torched.
Police have arrested two students thought to feature in a video posted online showing youths celebrating outside the school with a box of matches. A police spokesman said: ‘Students forcefully removed the victim from the security room where she was hidden by the school authorities, killed her and burnt the building.
‘Two people have been arrested and the suspects in the viral video on Twitter were spotted and will be nailed soon.’
The murder has sparked outrage in Nigeria, which has regularly witnessed religious and ethnic conflict.
Rev Matthew Hassan Kukah said: ‘Christians have lived peacefully with their Muslim neighbours here in Sokoto over the years. This matter must be treated as a criminal act and the law must take its course.’
The school condemned the ‘unfortunate happenings that led to the loss of life of a female student at the institution’.
Ms Yakubu’s death is the fourth killing of a woman for alleged blasphemy by angry gangs in the north of Nigeria.
In 2007 Christianah Oluwasesin, a Christian teacher, was stabbed to death after she stopped a student from entering an exam room with his books.