₦airaland Forum

A Christian student stoned to death at a college in northwest Nigeria on Thursday (May 12) was not killed because she blasphemed the Holy Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) as widely reported, she was killed because she had refused to date a Muslim guy who wooed her.

Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu, a 200-level student at Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, the capital of Sokoto state, was beaten, stoned to death and her body set on fire, area residents said; a video showing the attack reportedly appeared on social media on Thursday (May 12). In the video, an unidentified man reportedly rages in the Hausa language that he killed Yakubu and set her body on fire.



Her killer may have used religion as a facade to carry out his anger against her because killing in northern Nigeria in the name of fighting for Islam (when they are not) is commonplace. Jihad is one of the most abused religious concepts in the world.



Renowned French sociologist, Olivier Roy, argues that while terrorism and jihadism are familiar phenomena, the deliberate pursuit of death has produced a new kind of radical violence. In other words, we’re facing not a radicalization of Islam, but the Islamization of radicalism.

Roy said further: “Jihad and Death is a concise dissection of the highly sophisticated narrative mobilised by extremists: the myth of the Caliphate recast into a modern story of heroism and nihilism. This very contemporary aesthetic of violence is less rooted in the history of Islamic thought than it is entrenched in a youth culture that has turned global and violent”.



Roy’s argument substantiates the narrative around Deborah’s death: someone had willfully manipulated Jihad to kill an innocent girl.



Yakubu, was a member of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) in her native Tungan Magajiya town, Rijau County in Niger state. David Ayuba Azzaman, senior pastor at The King Worship Chapel and Ministries, Inc. in Kaduna city confirmed that was falsely accused of blaspheming the Holy Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) by a Muslim whose advances she had refused.

Pastor Azzaman said he received information about the killing from Christians at the college in Sokoto.

Pastor Azzaman told Morning Star News that: “Deborah Emmanuel was complaining in a class WhatsApp group chat, kicking against how they discriminate against Christians in the school in areas of assignments and tests in favor of the Muslims. This is what they used as a yardstick to say she insulted Muhammad. She didn’t insult Prophet Muhammad, but it was discovered that she turned down a Muslim proposal to date her. That led to him accusing her of insulting Prophet Muhammad”.

Local media reported that Yakubu said in the WhatsApp chat group that she had passed exams thanks to Christ, and when she was pressured to retract the statement and apologize, she declined. She urged fellow group members to refrain from discussing religion. Deborah was killed for standing for Christ, not for desecrating Prophet Mohammed (S.A.W).



Area residents told Morning Star News in text messages that a Muslim mob dragged Yakubu from her hostel in the morning, stoned her to death, and burned her corpse.



Area resident James Shingumi said: “This morning, a Christian female student was stoned to death and burned by some Muslim students who accused her of insulting Muhammad”.

The Rev. Kelvin Ugwu, a Roman Catholic priest, said in a statement that he had viewed a video of the assault.

Two students have been arrested in connection with the killing, according to the Sokoto State Police Command. Police spokesperson Ssnusi Abubakar said all those connected to the crime would be arrested.



Sokoto state’s information commissioner, Isah Bajini Galadanci, confirmed the killing, saying that as a proactive measure against escalation, officials had ordered the closure of the institution.

Governor. Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has directed the ministry of higher education and relevant security agencies to investigate.

The commissioner said: “Meanwhile, Gov. Aminu Waziti Tambuwal has called on the people of the state to remain calm and maintain peace as the government would take appropriate actions on the findings of the investigations by the relevant authority”.

The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, the Rev. Matthew Hassan Kukah, called on Christians to remain calm and for authorities to arrest and prosecute the killers.

Reverend Kukah said in a press statement: “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 the extant laws of our land. This has nothing to do with religion. Christians have lived peacefully with their Muslim neighbors here in Sokoto over the years. This matter must be treated as a criminal act, and the law must take its cause”.

Leaders of the Hausa Christian Foundation (HACFO), a ministry among the Hausa people of northern Nigeria, noted that Yakubu was the leader of the campus Christian fellowship’s female students.

HACFO said in a press statement that: “Trouble started from an argument on their departmental WhatsApp group, which led to the gruesome murder. Pray for her family and the Fellowship of Christian Students (FCS), and ask God to intervene in the security of other lives of Christians on the campus and in the city, which is the Islamic headquarters of Nigeria where the Sultan is based”.

The leader of Muslims in Nigeria, the Sultan of Sokoto, issued a statement condemning the killing.

The sultan said through the secretary of the Sokoto Sultanate Council, Sa’idu Muhammadu Maccido: “The Sultanate Council has learned with dismay the unfortunate happenings at the Shehu Shagari College of Education (SSCOE), Sokoto, that led to the loss of life of a female student of the institution. The Sultanate Council condemned the incident in its totality and has urged the security agencies to bring perpetrators of the unjustifiable incident to justice. The Sultanate Council has urged all to remain calm and ensure peaceful co-existence among all people of the state and nation”.

There was pandemonium two days ago in Sokoto as protesters took to the streets demanding the release of two suspects detained for the killing of the late Miss Yakubu.

The protesters were chanting “Allahu Akbar” meaning “God is Great” in Arabic, also faulting what they described as the sympathy trailing the murder of Deborah, who was a student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto

In his dream?

This is one of the fake news BBC warned against, I doubt d veracity if the news because d late Deborah has been buried and this author write that d body is still in the morgue.

I love clarity in whatever I do, who were those shouting yahoo Boys, I doubt if abokis know what is yahoo, maybe d bike man is another tribe. Let d police do thorough investigation and d perpetrators be brought to book.

So many fake news has been flooding d internet lately over this Deborah case, bloggers pls let's mind the type of lies yiu feed d public.

I sincerely detest news or occurrence like this, the guy that was killed and d ones on d hospital don't have friends or relatives, cant their relatives go to the aboki base and kill as many as possible, why are the yoruba so docile that they accept every shit the abokis throw at them with out any protest?

You are very correct, it's not the fault of the masses but the fault of the govt.

OneCandleAway:
There was a thread by a Ghanaian some weeks ago stating that they and other countries know how to place the fulani on a leash, so they don't constitute a nuisance. But in Nigeria we give them too much freedom.

If this man see any terrorist group that assure him of vengeance against the government of sokoto and its people won't he jump at the offer? This is how unresolved crisis cause insecurity in this country.

Nobody will steal money but almajiris and Mohammed ass-lickers will have freedom of lynching whoever they like in d name of blasphemy.

Policemen should start shooting at sight. They needed to be wasted. Bunch of fools.

If the igbos know the herders place of settlement they should go after them and kill the mercilessly. An eye for an eye pls.

What tinubu actually meant by Medical certificate is his psychiatric certificates given to him when he was leaving the psychiatric home. Olori buruku.

I don't want to believe this writeup because some bloggers are confusionist.

Many of the presidential aspirants are ignoring this issue because they don't want to lose northerns votes, it's only osibanjo who has said something about. Tinubu is yet to say a word. Their ignorance is more revealing of their stands on this, so we know where they belong.

I don't know what is taking the Nigeria police to parade the imaginary 2 suspected they claimed to have apprehended.

This is one of the bastard call sheikh who brainwashed the doomed almajiris.

We are all used to this bullshit press statement from the president, those perpetrators are students of the college and this should make it an easy task to apprehend all of them. They all must be expelled from d school and made to face d law. The lady must not die in vain.

The day I read the publication I'd this feeling in me that it was a ploy by the said lady to stop the police from trailing her.

I just feel like entering a nearby mosque and gun down all d Muslims therein but will that bring back d dead.

Thunder fire Mohammed where he's rotten away now.

Am just wondering what will happen to this omokirikiri if GEJ finally decamp to APC.

Omo mhen! I can't stop laughing o. Alaigbo don GBOLAGA..... Thank God no live is lost. Na half payment d Musician go collect because he no finish his performance.

Sometimes I detest the way many of our politicians reason, these fools that don't know what tomorrow holds for everyone is talking as if he's God. The late Abba Kyari would have used the millions he used in printing posters for election for Humanitarian purpose if he'd known he'll die of COVID-19. Did he know whether he or Tinubu will see d election day?

This is d first time I'm hearing that a Nigerian politician voluntarily resigned, if he was accused of corruption am sure he will never resigned but he resigned this time because of his selfish interest.

Who send them?

IPOBconda is the father of anaconda. As for those who are still doubting that these innocent couple were killed by ipob, may they die a horrible death worst than this.

after4:
e pain am

Fulani prisoner smiling for the camera.

Na Femi Adesina dey help buhari run his Twitter account, wetin concern fulani concern Twitter?

I won't be surprised because all what the oyinbos have rejected are what's being shipped to my dear country. I pity those flying in this second hand, Alaba-made aircrafts.

This will be a bad news for the flat head haters.

Who is bankrolling this half-baked, dimwit called facrook Eyeorigi to write and publish all this balderdash for d public consumption? Since whatever d church does now causes u migraine I'll advise you to write your will and hang ursef because who God has bless no man can cause. Politicians are there sponsoring banditry and insecurity but you have nothing to write about them, foolish slowpoke with bend mouth.

This is a confirmation that he's once upon a time sponsored them or he's still sponsoring them abi what benefits is his presidential ambition to those militants?