One year ago, on May 12, 2022, Islamist extremists murdered Deborah Samuel, a Nigerian student at Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto state. They set her on fire for dissuading classmates from posting religious content on a WhatsApp group created for academic purposes. The extremists accused her of blaspheming the Prophet Mohammed.
Filmed by Killers, the schoolgirl was stoned, beaten with sticks and then set on fire by her Muslim classmates, these went viral on all social media platforms.
Days after the tragic events that rocked the country, the Sokoto State Police Command announced the arrest of two suspects in connection with the murder of Deborah.
The suspected murderers, Bilyaminu Aliyu and Aminu Hukunci were on May 16 docked at a Sokoto Chief Magistrate’s Court for their alleged participation in the crime. Thirty-four lawyers led by Professor Mansur Ibrahim, allegedly sponsored by some public figures, stormed the court to defend the suspected killers.
The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Sanusi Abubakar, in a statement on August 28, revealed that those arrested were not the prime suspects, saying that they were only among those who organized the riot.
Upon completing the investigation, he then vowed that the command would unearth all the suspected killers.
However, one year after the incident, the prime suspect who was boasting in the video of how he led the mob to lynch the innocent girl is still at large.
A Catholic Priest, Fr Kelvin Ugwu in a post on his official Facebook page on Thursday, asked the state governor, Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, President Muhammadu Buhari and the Nigeria Police Force to tell Nigerians what happened to the suspects. He wrote;
“I am asking the Governor of Sokoto, Hon Aminu Waziri Tambuwal, please sir, where are the killers of Deborah? Have you found them? Where did you keep them? What did you do to them?
“I am asking President Muhammadu Buhari, where are the killers? Are they invisible? Have they been arrested?
“And to the Nigeria Police Force, what has happened to the swiftness you normally employ in arresting people who make posts on social media you consider inciting and divisive? What did you do to the killers of Ms Deborah? Where are the killers?”
This comes amid allegations that even two suspects remanded to the Sokoto Correctional Center in May 2022 may have been released.
Furthermore,
An On-Air Personality, Mr Joseph Adejor, also told journalists yesterday that;
“there may be something fishy about how the case died silently. The question is, have they been able to arrest the prime suspect? After the incident, there were reports that the murderer fled to Niger Republic, have they traced him to that country?
“Like my friend always says, Nigeria is just a joke. A human being was burnt to death and nothing happened to the suspects. You remember how a popular politician condemned the incident and later deleted the post. I doubt if those two suspects that they managed to arrest were not freed later”
However, according to the Spokesperson of the Sokoto Police Command, DSP Sanusi Abubakar, the command had played its part by charging the suspects in court. He said,
“The police as an institution, when we charge a case to the court, it is left for the judge to determine whether the suspect is found guilty or not. Our duty as police agency is to conduct investigation, and charge the suspect to court. It is now in the hands of the court to determine the end. We as a police, we have played out parts it is now left for the judiciary to do the necessary”.
Asked to clarify the allegations that some suspects were freed, the PPRO said, “If there is any allegation that the suspects have been freed, I think only the judiciary is in the position to answer that.”
cc: Daily Post Ng
