Reports last weekend said a Kano Magistrate’s Court presided over by Chief Magistrate Jibrin Muhammad set free five suspected killers of a 74-year-old female Igbo trader, Mrs. Bridget Agbahime, at Kofar Wambai market in Kano for alleged blasphemy early in June this year.
The magistrate’s decision was said to be based on the directive of the Kano State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice. The suspects – Dauda Ahmed, Abdulmumeen Mustafa, Zubairu Abubakar, Abdullahi Abubakar and Musa Abdullahi – were arraigned on a four-count charge of allegedly inciting disturbance, culpable homicide, joint act and mischief.
State counsel, Mr. Rabiu Yusuf, who represented the Kano Attorney- General and Commissioner for Justice, was quoted as saying: “We received the case diary from the police on June 8 and having gone through the case diary, the Attorney-General of the state evaluated the facts in accordance with sections 130 and 150 of the Criminal Procedure Code… The legal advice presented to the court, dated June 24, states that there is no case to answer as the suspects are all innocent, and orders the court to discharge all the suspects”.
Not surprisingly, the ostensibly poor prosecution of the suspects has drawn ethnic and religious flaks from aggrieved Igbo groups and the Christian community.
The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), for example, condemned the release of the suspects, describing Muhammad’s judgement as concocted. The group wondered how a magistrate court which had no jurisdiction to try murder cases could release murder suspects without the connivance of the Kano State Government.
The Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) also reacted angrily, saying the release of the suspects was highly provocative and an insult.
“The Association condemns the continuous act of killing of innocent Nigerians under the pretence of blasphemy and considers the wilful absence of justice for victims of these mindless killings in Nigeria by the relevant authorities as a very serious constitutional breach and security threat to our unity and collective survival as a nation. The now-familiar tradition of avoidance to arrest or properly investigate and prosecute cases involving the deliberate killing of innocent Nigerians is evidence of a scripted plan to operate another nation within the Nigerian state and to deny justice to those who truly deserve justice. “The cardinal responsibility of government to protect the lives and property of the citizens is sacrosanct and must not be sacrificed on the altar of religious convenience.
As it stands today, there is no single prosecution record of any criminal who killed under the pretence of blasphemy in Nigeria despite the number of victims and incontrovertible facts showing that those killings were done in daylight and mostly by persons who live within the communities where these heinous crimes were committed”, CAN stated.
Eyewitness account, we recall, stated that following claims of blasphemy against the slain Mrs. Agbahime, some rampaging youths armed with dangerous weapons attacked and slit the throat of the woman described as a dealer in plastic wares at the Kofar Wambai market, in the presence of her husband.
The killing drew resounding public rage. Recall, for instance, that the Sultan of Sokoto and President-General of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, condemned the killing in a statement credited to him through Jama’atu Nasril Islam’s (JNI) Secretary-General, Dr. Khalid Aliyu. “It is hardly believable that such dastardly act could happen in the name of religion, considering the various enlightenment programmes on inter-faith and mutual co-existence being put in place by Muslim scholars and the leadership”, the Sultan said. Reports also said Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano State announced the arrest of one Alhaji Dauda as the prime suspect in Mrs. Agbahime’s murder at a stakeholders meeting on the killing the governor hosted in Kano. Ganduje also promised his government’s support to the bereaved family. Besides, the then Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, purportedly deployed homicide detectives to immediately take over the investigation of the incident.
If after all said and done, the case has ended up with shoddy prosecution, then the nation really has a long way to go in forging unity and peaceful co-existence. At best, the cavalier prosecution that suggests no element of rigour will stiffen ethnic and religious suspicion,grudge, animosity, rancour and even violence. For, the slip is so glaring. The Federal Government should intervene and ensure the case is not closed. The country pays mere lip service to justice and the rule of law when innocent citizens are recklessly hacked to death in the name of religion, and the perpetrators stroll away, free and unpunished.
