Blasphemy: CAN youths petition Buhari, IGP over Deborah’s murder

The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Youth Wing (YOWICAN), has petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba Alkali, over Thursday’s killing of Deborah Yakubu, a 200-level Home Economics student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto State.

An irate mob reportedly attacked the female student, killed her and burnt her ablaze on May 12 for insisting that her class WhatsApp group should be strictly for academic purposes.

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However, the youth wing of CAN (YOWICAN) lamented that the killing of its members for inexplicable reasons had persisted unabated.

The national chairman of YOWICAN,

Mr. Belusochukwu Enwere, on Friday in Abuja, called for in-depth investigation into the circumstances surrounding the killing of Deborah.

The petition said, “We humbly write on behalf of YOWICAN, the umbrella body that coordinates and oversees the affairs of all the Christian Youths in Nigeria, over the barbaric killing of Deborah Samuel Yakubu by her fellow students, over a comment on WhatsApp group platform.

“Prior to her demise, the deceased was a 200-level student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education Sokoto.

“Information reaching us from including friends, students and close family members, reveal that Miss Deborah Samuel Yakubu was tortured, stoned, lynched and gruesomely murdered and her body subsequently set ablaze as a result of comment she made in her departmental group WhatsApp platform, which her killers alleged to have blasphemed Prophet Muhammad.

“Sir, we heard that only two people were arrested while over 200 students participated in committing this crime. We hope this is not a way to sweep this matter under the carpet,” the petition reads in parts.

The Christian youths also said that the unlawful and dastardly action of the perpetrators must not only be condemned by all right-thinking people, but the Police, Department of Security Services (DSS), the Minister of Education must fish them out, prosecute them as it is expected.