Northern Christian Elders Demand Justice for Lynched Sokoto Student

By John Shiklam in Kaduna

The Northern States Christian Elders Forum (NOSCEF), has asked the Federal government to fish out killers of Deborah Yakubu, a 200 level student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education (SSCOE), Sokoto, and bring them to justice.

Yakubu was murdered on Thursday in the school by Islamic extremists who accused her of alleged blasphemy against Prophet Mohammed.

In a statement on Friday in Kaduna, Chairman of NOSCEF, Ejoga Inalegwu said government must use the incident to send a strong signal that such barbaric acts will no longer be tolerated by bringing the murderers to justice.“NOSCEF condemns the brutal murder of the young girl, Deborah Yakubu, who was innocently expressing herself on a class group chat by a mob instigated from within her classmates.

“The death of Deborah Yakubu is one too many by mobs wearing a cloak of religion in the North.
“In a country where there is law, nobody, group or individuals has a right to take another’s life whatsoever, outside the due process of law,” the statement said.

It noted the condemnation of the killing by a cross sections of Nigeria, stating that the condemnation should go beyond the usual rhetoric.

It insisted that the matter must not be swept under the carpet “with publicized arrests without prosecution or jaundiced prosecution and letting off the hook, when the outcries die down”.

“One day it was the videoed execution of Christians in the North because of a said killing of a terrorist in Syria and next what should have been an internal WhatsApp class platform chat results in mob action murder, wearing the robe of religion in our dear North,” Inalegwu said.

NOSCEF called on the authorities to commit themselves to stamping out these brutalities that have no value for life before they completely consume the entire North in particular and Nigeria as a nation, if Nigeria is not dismembered as a result.

The statement commiserated with the family of the deceased student and urged Nigerians to rally round them to comfort them.