HURIWA to Gov Tambuwal, Sokoto College Management: You Have Blood of Deborah in Your Hands

Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has condemned the conspiratorial silence for over 24 hours of President Muhammadu Buhari over the brutal hacking to death of a 200 level Christian Student of the Sokoto College of Education Miss Deborah Samuel Yakubu by Islamic extremists in the school over alleged blasphemy.

Warning that reprisals may become inevitable if the case of murder of Deborah in Sokoto is swept under the carpets like similar cases of murders of Christians over alleged blasphemy by Islamists in Kubwa Abuja and twice in Kano State, the Rights group told Sokoto state governor Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal and the hierarchy of the ill-fated school that the blood of the innocent Christian girl murdered in broad daylight is on their heads and generations unborn won’t forgive them for seemingly ominous inaction.

HURIWA is by this statesman urging that the strongest deterrent action provided by law is applied against these killers of Deborah who are even captured on video recordings or else the Federal Government has unwittingly authorised that reprisals should occur and this violence will do Nigeria no good because religious violence could lead to a civil war.

“HURIWA is very much aware, that President Muhammadu Buhari did not mince words to condemn Indigenous Peoples of Biafra(IPOB) even without any scientific evidence linking them remotely or otherwise to the gruesome and despicable beheading of the soldiers’ couple massacred by unknown gunmen reportedly on their way to a traditional wedding in the South East of Nigeria. President Muhammadu Buhari even gave orders that the killers be hunted down and dealt with decisively by military forces.”

HURIWA continued thus: “President Muhammadu Buhari did this aforementioned hurried but generally hasty reaction because the perceived or suspected killers are Igbos, an Ethnicity that his administration has treated with the short end of the stick for not voting for him in 2015 and 2019. But since over 28 hours that a Christian student of the Sokoto College of Education Deborah Samuel Yakubu was lynched by Islamic students for alleged blasphemy, President Muhammadu Buhari has maintained conspiratorial silence as if the innocent blood that was shed by the Extremists is not that of a human being. This same hypocrisy of conspiratorial silence was noticed by the Sokoto State governor who stayed away from taking action but secretly sent his commissioner for higher education to speak on the murder. We in HURIWA want to let him Tambuwal and Buhari know that so long as there is no justice for this murdered Martyr Miss Deborah Yakubu, her innocent blood is on their heads”.

HURIWA condemned the management of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto for standing by and for doing next to nothing whilst the riotous Islamic extremists within the student’s body descended on their fellow Students and killed her like a chicken but only made the timid announcement of the so-called indefinite closure of the institution after a female student was reportedly killed for alleged blasphemy.

HURIWA said it is preposterous that the late student, believed to be a Christian, was stoned to death and burnt just because she was reportedly said to have attributed her academic excellence to Jesus and rankled by her response, she was asked to withdraw the statement — to which she refused even as her refusal to apologise made the mob attack her and then set her body ablaze. The Rights group wondered when Sokoto has become an Islamic State when section 10 of the Constitution recognises Nigeria as a SECULAR STATE whereby no RELIGION IS A STATE RELIGION.”

HURIWA quoted a source as stating that “She (Deborah Yakubu Samuel) was having an argument with some of her schoolmates over their ongoing examination and when she was asked how she managed to pass her exams, she said it was Jesus,” the source was quoted as saying. “She was asked to withdraw the statement and apologise which she refused. “The school security intervened, and took her to their post but they were overpowered by students after which she was killed in the process. After killing her, her body was burnt on the school premises.” Reacting to the incident, the college directed all students to vacate its campus immediately.

The college said thus: “Following today’s early morning Students rampage in the college, the college management has resolved to close down the college indefinitely with immediate effect. Consequently, all students are hereby directed to vacate the College campus immediately (12th May 2022),” the statement read.

HURIWA in a statement by Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko its National Coordinator however blamed the management for not adequately providing her security by failing to call for police and military beef up but simply sacrificing the Christian Student at the altar of religious extremism and hypocrisy.

HURIWA said religious pluralism and freedoms have suffered organised criminal attacks since President Muhammadu Buhari who before he won election in 2015 supported the introduction of full shariah law in Northern Nigeria, became President but nobody who killed Christian has ever been known to have been punished in accordance with the law of Nigeria thus creating the impression that the laws of Nigeria are not meant to be effective in the core Moslem North.

HURIWA condemned the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar for reportedly debunking his initial condemnation of the dastardly act of killing by the Extremists of Deborah just as the Rights group said Atiku Abubakar has a terrible record of not intervening when Christians are killed by his kinsmen but yet he hopes to win the votes of Christians as he seeks the ticket of the opposition PDP to become their Presidential Candidate this month.

HURIWA dismissed ATIKU ABUBAKAR as someone who lacks principles and is perpetually afraid of Islamic fundamentalists thus creating the image of himself as a Moslem bigot. ATIKU ABUBAKAR DENIED EVER CONDEMNING THE KILLING OF THE YOUNG CHRISTIAN GIRL DEBORAH IN SOKOTO BECAUSE ISLAMISTS THREATENED HIM ON HIS FACEBOOK AND TWITTER NOT TO CAST THEIR VOTES FOR HIM. LET US ASK ATIKU ABUBAKAR  IF YOUR DAUGHTER IS AT THE RECEIVING END OF THIS BARBARIC MURDER,  WILL YOU PREFER THE SO-CALLED VOTES OF THE LAWLESS ISLAMISTS OR WILL YOU STAND BY THE NIGERIAN CONSTITUTION WHICH IN SECTION 36(5) GUARANTEES A FAIR HEARING TO ALL ACCUSED PERSONS SND SECTION 6 CONCEDES JUDICIAL POWER OF THE FEDERATION TO THE COURTS OF COMPETENT JURISDICTION LISTED THEREIN? WE ASK PRESIDENT MUHAMMADU BUHARI  IF ONE OF YOUR DAUGHTERS IS THE ONE TREATED LIKE A CHICKEN LIKE THE DEBORAH OF SOKOTO COLLEGE OF EDUCATION, WILL YOU MAINTAIN CONSPIRATORIAL SILENCE AS IF YOU ARE NOT ON THIS PLANET WITH US?”