Disgusted by what is referred to as a cover-up, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has urged the Aminu Tambuwal-led Sokoto State administration to ensure prompt justice in the murder of Deborah Samuel.
HURIWA further denounced the leadership of the Nigerian Police and the Department of State Services (DSS), whose agents allegedly saw the mob treatment of Deborah Samuel from Niger State who had been accused of blasphemy by Islamic extremists in May 2022. Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, had her enrolled in the 200-level programme.
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The rights organisation expressed displeasure at what they perceived as a cover-up of crime and warned of the serious consequences of a democratically elected Sokoto State administration allowing killers to roam free in Nigeria.
Criticism Against Tambuwal
The group claimed in a statement released yesterday by its National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, that Governor Aminu Tambuwal’s resounding silence on this abhorrent, primitive, irrational, vexations crime against humanity and the purposeful withholding of information from the general public on this matter is a serious stain on the governor’s public reputation.
The Sokoto State governor previously served as a senior national legislator and even rose to the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives.
Onwubiko said;
Deborah Samuel was a Christian who went to find knowledge in Sokoto the citadel of learning but was killed over purported blasphemy by an unruly mob in the presence of law enforcement agents. The Sokoto State governor even put up a flimsy excuse for the armed security operatives’ inability or unwillingness to disperse the killer mob that killed Deborah and thereby watched until the young innocent Northern Christian girl was lynched to her death and her remains set alight.
According to the group, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) will definitely approach the international community to take steps to compel the governor of Sokoto State to find the killers and bring them to justice in accordance with the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria if the governor is unable to resolve this unusual but disturbing case of murder as soon as possible.
