Mob suspected to be students of the Shehu Shagari College of Education (SSCOE), Sokoto, on Thursday set ablaze Miss Deborah Yakubu, an NCE 2 student of Home Economics Department on alleged blasphemy of Prophet Mohammed (SAW).
Deborah was accused of speaking against the Prophet in her response to an issue in a WhatsApp group suspected to be created by their class.
Her comment in the group, according to several accounts, elicited the anger that she has blasphemed the Prophet, thereby leading to mob action against her before she was set ablaze.
The development came just as the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, urged the security agencies to bring those involved in the gruesome murder of Deborah to book.
In a statement personally signed by him, Kukah decried the ugly incident, saying that the infamous action is unacceptable on the grounds that Christians have lived peacefully with their Muslim neighbours in Sokoto over the years.
The statement reads in part, “I have received with deep shock the news of the tragedy that has occured in the Shehu Shagari College of Education, leading to the gruesome murder of Ms Deborah Yakubu, a 200 level Home Economics Student .
“We condemned this incident in the strongest terms and call on the authorities to investigate this tragedy and ensure that all the culprits are brought to book. The only obligation that is owed her immediate family, her fellow students and the school authorities is the assurance that those who are guilty of this inhuman act, no matter their motivation are punished according to extant laws of the land.
“This has nothing to do with Religion. Christians have lived peacefully with their Muslim neighbours here in Sokoto over the years. This matter must be treated as a criminal act and the law must take its cause”.
Bishop Kukah, who admonished Christians to pray for the repose of her soul, also pray God to grant the family the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.
Similarly worried by the development, the Sokoto State Government through a statement signed by Commissioner for Information, Hon Isah Bajini Galadanci, said the state government has ordered for immediate investigation into the cause of the incident.
Noting that the State Government has ordered immediate closure of the college, Galadanci added that Sokoto State Governor Aminu Tambuwal is deeply pained by the incident.
He appealed to citizens of the state to be law abiding as they await the outcome of the investigation.
