Some Muslim youths are planning a protest in Sokoto State to demand the release of two suspects arrested in connection with the gruesome murder of Deborah Yakubu, our correspondent has learnt.
Deborah, a Christian youth and 200-level Home Economics student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, was mauled and burnt to death for alleged blasphemy of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).
In a notice circulating online, the youths agreed to meet at the Gawon Nama Roundabout by 9am.
Two phone numbers were scribbled on the notice but the date of the meeting was not stated in the e-flyer written in Hausa.
The translated version of the notice read, “We are calling on Muslims in Sokoto State to gather where there was a riot to save brethren in Islam that are battling the faith of Islam and upholding the respect of prophet of Allah S.A.W.”
The Police Public Relations Officer in Sokoto, Sanusi Abubabar, confirmed the brewing protest in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Saturday.
“We are on top of the situation,” he told our correspondent, adding that the police authorities in Sokoto are in talks with leaders of thoughts and opinion moulders in the state.
The police in Sokoto had confirmed the killing of Deborah by extremists on Thursday.
“Students forcefully removed the victim from the security room where the school authorities hid her, killed her and burnt the building. The students banded together with miscreants and barricaded the Sokoto/Jega road,” the PPRO had said in a statement.
“Two students were arrested in connection with the crime committed. The school has been closed down by the school authority, and policemen were deployed to give tight security coverage,” Abubakar had added.
Many civil society groups and lawyers have condemned the murder of Deborah while some persons have defended the mob action.
Sokoto, a state in Nigeria’s North-West has a more Muslim population than Christians and there have been cases of sectarian strife and religion-triggered extrajudicial killings.
