The Christian Association of Nigeria has called on concerned authorities to ensure that the killers of Deborah Yakubu are apprehended, arrested and prosecuted.
Deborah Yakubu Samuel, a 200-level Home Economics student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, was on Thursday stoned to death and her body set ablaze by a group of overzealous student who said she made a comment in her school’s WhatsApp platform which her Muslim colleagues considered blasphemous.
The body in a statement issued by its General Secretary Rev. Joseph Bade Daramola called on the Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, to ensure that the matter is not swept under the carpet.
The General Secretary, who alleged that the failure of the security agencies and the government to rise up to such criminalities in the past gave birth to terrorists and bandits, stressing that “as long as the State fails to bring these beasts and criminals amidst us to book, so also the society will continue to be their killing fields.”
Rev. Daramola stated that the unlawful and dastardly act must not only be condemned by all right thinking people but also the security operatives must fish out the perpetrators and prosecute them as it is expected of them.
The cleric who also “acknowledge the swift reaction of His Eminence, Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar 111, who not only condemned the criminal and religious intolerant action, but called on the security agencies to bring the perpetrators to justice,” also “called on all teachers and preachers of religious intolerance, extremism and terrorism to repent before the wrath of God descends on them if the State failed to bring them to book. They are agents of death amidst us.”
He continued, “We recall the provocative and demeaning advertisement of the Sterling Bank where the bank compared the Resurrection of Jesus Christ to ‘Agege bread.’ Up till now, nobody was attacked and even the CAN leadership has accepted the apology tendered by its Chief Executive, Abubakar Suleiman. Killing for any God in the name of blasphemy is ungodly, satanic, foolish, reprehensible and totally unacceptable.
“This is not a Stone Age and Nigeria is not a Banana Republic.” Rev. Daramola maintained that Nigeria remains a non-religious State where no religion is supreme to the other.
“We acknowledge and commend the restraint of the Christian students of the College who refused to embrace self-help and reprisal attacks on those who murdered their colleague. It is our prayers that those vampires in religious garments will not push the country to a religious war. This is why both the government and the security agencies must stop treating them with kid gloves. Enough is enough.
CAN in the statement commiserated with the family of the murdered Deborah and others bereaved and thanked “many other Nigerians who condemned this heinous crime. It was quite an unfortunate development in 21st century Nigeria,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Christian Association of Nigeria, has called for a nationwide protest over the gruesome killing of Deborah Samuel, a 200 level student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto.
The CAN President, Rev. Olasupo Ayokunle, in a letter addressed to all bloc leaders, urged Christians to hold peaceful protests within their church premises on Sunday May 22, 2022.
He made the call against the backdrop of the Thursday killing and setting ablaze of the female student by an angry mob that accused her of blasphemy.
The letter dated May 14, 2022 and signed by CAN’s General Secretary, Joseph Daramola, reads: “I have been directed by the CAN President, His Eminence, Rev. Dr. Samson Olasupo A. Ayokunle, to request all Church Leaders, through your various Churches to organize a PEACEFUL PROTEST in honour of one of our daughters, DEBORAH YAKUBU who was gruesomely murdered on Thursday, 12 May, 2022 at the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto in Sokoto State by some Islamic extremists.
The protest will take place on 22 May, 2022 in the afternoon by 3:00 pm in every Secretariat of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) nationwide and not on the streets in order to avoid further loss of lives. Those without CAN’s Secretariat may use any church with big premises.
“We are to hold placards with some succinct message like “WE DEMAND JUSTICE 4 DEBORAH,” “NO MORE KILLING IN GOD’S NAME”, “ENOUGH IS ENOUGH,” “POLICE, STOP UNPROVOKED KILLINGS IN NIGERIA,” “CHRISTIANS ARE NOT SECOND CLASS CITIZENS,” “KILLERS OF DEBORAH MUST BE PROSECUTED,” “WE CONDEMN RELIGIOUS KILLINGS,” “WE SAY NO TO ISLAMIC EXTREMISTS.”
“We urge those who could afford it to make use of the traditional media and the social media and others can use only the social media to give it a wide coverage in other to sensitize the whole world. We also call on Nigerian Christians in diaspora to join us using our embassies all over the world.
“The occasion can also be used to pray for Deborah’s family and friends, peace for the country, victory for the Church and godly political leaders in the coming general election.”
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