Blasphemy: Buhari orders immediate investigation as CAN demands justice

President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday condemned the killing of a second-year female student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, Deborah Yakubu, by irate youths over alleged blasphemy.

The female student were killed and her corpse burnt by her colleagues for allegedly making a WhatsApp post that blasphemed Prophet Muhammad (SAW) on Thursday.

Buhari’s Friday reactions came almost 24 hours after Miss Yakubu was gruesomely stoned to death and burnt into ashes.

In the statement issued by Garba Shehu, his Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity, Buhari condemned the killing and “demanded an impartial extensive probe into all that happened before and during the incident.” 

He decried that the mob took laws into their own hands instead of allowing the law to take its course on the matter.

“The President noted that Muslims all over the world demand respect for the Holy prophets, including Isah (Alaihissalaam, Jesus Christ) and Muhammad (SAW), but where transgressions occur, as alleged to be the case in this instance, the law does not allow anyone to take matters into their hands,” Buhari said.

He then called for calm and directed the 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.

Meanwhile, the Christian Association of Nigeria, on Friday, condemned the killing of Deborah.

Saying that “Enough is enough,” the Christian body demanded that Justice should be done on the matter.

In a statement by its General Secretary, Joseph Daramola, CAN said, “The unlawful and dastardly action of the perpetrators must not only be condemned by all right-thinking people, but security operatives must fish them out and prosecute them as it is expected of them.

“It is the failure of the security agencies and the government to rise up to such criminalities in the past that gave birth to terrorists and bandits. As long as the state fails to bring these beasts and criminals amidst us to justice, society will continue to be their killing field.”

CAN acknowledged the swift reaction of the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, in condemned the incident and asking security agencies to bring the perpetrators to justice.

It called on Governor Aminu Tambuwal to ensure that the matter was not swept under the carpet like previous ones.

“Killing for any God in the name of blasphemy is ungodly, satanic, foolish, reprehensible and totally unacceptable. This is not the Stone Age and Nigeria is not a banana republic. Nigeria remains a non-religious state, where no religion is supreme over the other,” CAN said.