Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has condemned the murder of a female student, Deborah Samuel, in Sokoto for alleged blasphemy.
A mob on Thursday killed the Christian student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Wamako, Sokoto State.
Police said Deborah was accused of making a social media post that blasphemed Prophet Muhammad.
Following immediate threats to her safety, she was immediately evacuated to the security post of the school where the mob took her from the personnel.
A video of the deceased being beaten and hit with sticks and subsequently burnt to death has since gone viral.
“Two students were arrested in connection with the crime. The school has been closed down by the school authority, and policemen deployed to give tight security coverage,” a police spokesman in the state, Sanusi Abubakar, said.
Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu in a statement said Buhari “strongly condemns the resort to self-help by the mob in Sokoto, resulting in violence, destruction and killing” of 200-level student “following an allegation that she had blasphemed Muhammad (SAW), the Prophet of Islam.
“No person has the right to take the law in his or her own hands in this country. Violence has and never will solve any problem.”
Her death has attracted widespread condemnation, with the Christian Association of Nigeria describing the killers as “vampires”.
“It is our prayers that those vampires in religious garments will not push the country to a religious war,” CAN secretary-general Joseph Bade Daramola said in a statement. ” This is why both the government and the security agencies must stop treating them with kid gloves.”
Shehu said Buhari has directed ministries of Information and Culture, Police Affairs and Communications and Digital Economy “to work with GSM providers and tech companies to help contain the spread of false and inflammatory information through social media.”
Buhari expressed condolences to the family of the deceased student and wished all those injured a quick recovery.
He commended the immediate response to the incident by the state government and urged religious and community leaders to call citizens’ attention to the need to exercise the right to freedom of speech responsibly.
