The murder of a Christian student in Sokoto has generated confusion within the NBA. The issue borders on whether or not the prearranged conference should hold despite the incident or not. In this legalistic ANALYSIS, Abdulrasheed Ibrahim, LL.M, Notary Public, digs deep into the issues within the “Sokoto Blasphemy”!
I was writing as an intervention to the controversy among lawyers on whether the NBA-SPIDEL conference earlier slated for Sokoto State should be cancelled or not following the gruesome murder of a female student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto under the heading : SOKOTO BLASPHEMY AND MURDER: SHOULD NBA RETREAT?, when some further developments erupted in Sokoto. I had stopped midway to make adjustment to accommodate those latest developments which prompted the change to this present heading.
Sokoto, the seat of caliphate is in the news for wrong reason. It was not a pleasant news reading that some alleged Muslims murdered a student by name Deborah Samuel, a 200 level student of Home Economics in the Shehu Shagari College of Education. There is no better way to describe this incident than calling it a clear case of murder for which the perpetrators must face the law for the appropriate punishment.
It is very unfortunate that we now live in a country where some animals in human flesh go about parading themselves as human beings. How can people who claim to be human being without diseases in their hearts to be so heartless to kill another human being in such gruesome manner claiming to be protesting a blasphemy against the Prophet of Islam. Is it not irrational for people claiming to be lovers of the Prophet of Islam engaging in acts that are contradictory to his teachings and messages?
The unfortunate death and Sokoto blasphemy
The unfortunate death of Deborah Sameul has attracted a very wide and overwhelming condemnation. Since they had the guts to kill and video tape, that is the gadget with which the security agents can use to trace the other culprits. A similar thing happened during the ENDSARS protest of 2020. Security agents used the phone gadget with which some guys used to record their acts, while attacking some police stations and putting on the DPO uniforms. People that are engaging in various kinds of crime must learn a big lesson that the crime does not pay.
The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) is deeply involved in the controversy that came after the death of Deborah Samuel. Before the unfortunate incident, the NBA-SPIDEL under the Chairmanship of Dr. Monday Ubani had scheduled its conference for Sokoto. The argument among some lawyers, probably led by Mr. Ebun-Adegboruwa (SAN), is against the postponement of the conference because of the incident. They argue that it should hold somewhere else outside Sokoto State.
Barbaric
According to the learned Senior Advocate: “It is barbaric that lawyers should be seen to be dancing on her grave (Deborah Samuel) in that State. We should make a statement to the government by cancelling the conference and hold it in a neighbouring state in the North”. While some lawyers seemed to have bought into the argument of the learned silk, that argument does not appeal to me at all because I am of the view that if the NBA under the leadership of Mr. Olumide Akpata retreat from that conference will be nothing but an act of cowardice.
I completely agree with the position of Dr. Monday Ubani in this case of “Sokoto blasphemy”. He argues that,“It will be preposterous for someone who is a lawyer to suggest that we should cancel our conference that is billed to take place in Sokoto because of the acts of law breakers in the state”. This is the right time to face the reality rather than playing to the gallery. Those that matter in that state have spoken and strongly condemned the madness.
Government has closed school where it happened but must also order immediate investigation into the crime. The Sokoto Sultanate has spoken against it, saying the law must punish the offenders. The police are working to apprehend more criminals. What else do we want? Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Reverend Mathew Hassan Kukah reportedly condemned the madness. “This has nothing to do with religion. Christians have lived peacefully with their Muslim neighbours here in Sokoto over years. This matter must be treated as criminal act and the law must take its cause,” he was quoted.
Dishearting
The NBA should use the conference to make a very strong case and statement by lawyers to the general public and the government that no one must sweep this case under the carpet. The NBA must show its readiness to prosecute the culprits in this Sokoto blasphemy to ensure execution of justice. I am of the view that the authorities should arrest anybody seen carrying placards protesting and callings for the release of those criminals.
It is very astonishing and disheartening that some people claiming to be Islamic scholars have been brainwashing their followers that the killing of Deborah Samuel is justiciable under the Islamic law. The rational questions now for those scholars are that without conceding to their views that such ideology exists in Islam: Are the perpetrators competent and have the authority to inflict such gruesome punishment? Can those scholars provide the specific Quranic injunctions and the authentic Hadith of the Prophet of Islam to justify their position? Are those scholars contending that Islam encouraged jungle justice?
The Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Nigeria when faced with a similar situation in the case of SHALLA Vs THE STATE (2007) 18 NWLR (Pt. 1066) 240, had this to say:
“…In any case, even on the assumption (although without any proof ) that the deceased had in some way done anything or uttered any word which was considered insulting to the Holy Prophet Muahmmed (S.A.W.), was it open to the appellant and others with him to constitute themselves into a court of law and pronounce the death sentence on another citizen? Plainly, this was jungle justice at its primitive and callous level. The facts of this case are rather chilling and leave one wondering why the appellant and the others with him committed this barbaric act .It cannot escape notice that the victim of this reckless and irresponsible behaviour is another Moslem, An Alhaji. I am greatly pained by the occurrence.”
The Apex Court in the land further held that:
“….Islamic law has not left the killing open in the hands of private individuals. The offence alleged has to be established through evidence before a court of law. The court itself will have to implore its professional dexterity in treating the case by allowing fair hearing and excluding all the inadmissible evidence or those person who may fall within the general exemption clause such as infant ,imbecile or those who suffer mental delusion .Thus the killing is controlled and sanctioned by the authorities….The law will thus , have set a dangerous precedence if private individual were authorized to take law into their hands as the appellant and others did in this case . Sharia guarantees and values the sanctity and dignity of human life. That is why it outlaws unlawful killing of human life…”
And more…
For further reading on this, please read my “Kano State’s Death Penalty for Blasphemy: A Viewpoint ” posted on 16th September 2020 wherein I have extensively discussed on the issue of blasphemy. Those scholars brainwashing their followers are classical example of “Islam between the incapable scholars and the ignorant followers.” This set of people only brings disrepute to Islam by their failure to understand what Islam really stands for. The founder did not set up Islam for destruction but as a system that provides solution to the problems confronting the world.
Most individuals find it difficult to accept any insult on their persons or their loved ones including their biological parents but when this occurs, such individual do not have the authority and competence to take the law into their hands. That is why there are provisions under the law particularly under the law of defamation to take care of such eventuality. Please see the case of UKO Vs. MBABA (2001) 4 NWLR (Pt. 704) Pg. 476 Paras C-F. The essence of this is that there must be serious caution on the part of every members of the society to be very careful and do away with act that can cause disunity and dismay in the society.
There is the urgent need to bring sanity to every parts of this country, after this “Sokoto blasphemy”. People that are not rational must not take the law into their hands in any part of this country as if they are in the jungle. WE have known Sokoto for a very long time as a very peaceful place and nobody, no matter how high placed, must to turn the city to an abattoir.
Need for sanity after Sokoto blasphemy
In our years of staying at the Usmanu Dan Fodiyo University, Sokoto in the 1990s towards the end of that decade, we never witnessed any religious or public disturbance and that was why we always take pride in calling our university the most peaceful university in Nigeria. Government must seriously nip in the bud any attempt to disrupt the peaceful nature of that city. Authorities must not allow people to propagate messages that tend to generate bad feelings and the breach of public peace.
In Islam, respect and honour for the Prophets of the Almighty Allah is not exclusively for the Prophet of Islam. The Holy Quran 2: 136 teaches the Muslims that: “We believe in Allah, and the revelation given to us , and to Abraham, Isma’il, Issac, Jacob and the Tribes. And given to Moses and Jesus and that given to (all) Prophets from their Lord: We make no difference between one and another of them, and we bow to Allah (in Islam)”.
Expected role of Islamic scholars
This incident of “Sokoto blasphemy” brings us to the role that genuine and serious Scholars of Islam who have read widely without restricting themselves to a particular school of thought need to play. Till day Islam still remains the most misunderstood religion in the world even among those that call themselves Muslims or Scholars. Although Arabic remains the official language of Islam to preserve its originality but that does not mean Islam revolts against other languages of the world. Scholars have translated the Holy Quran, the Hadith and other comprehensive Islamic literatures into the various languages of the world for the proper understanding of Islam. It is those that do not have proper understanding of the teaching of Islam that turn its message upside down.
Late Sayid Qutub of Egypt was right when he stated in the foreword to the book titled ISLAM & THE WORLD published in 1959 in India and written by Hassan Ali Nadwi :
“The most important need of the day is to help the Muslim acquires confidence in himself and in his past so he is able to face the future with hope, courage and high resolve. His faith in the Religion he professes, but whose genius he does not always understand, has to be revised and vitalised. His bonds to Islam are mainly those of heritage. He is a Muslim because he is born to Islam . He has rarely made any attempt to acquire a real understanding of his religion.”
Classical examples
One of the challenges facing the Muslim World today is the springing up of many people claiming to be Islamic scholars. When you listen to them you will be wondering where they learn their how version of Islam from. They will tell you Islam is a religion of peace but at the same time going about brainwashing and encouraging their followers to create unnecessary disturbance on the surface of the earth. Those scholars should update their knowledge on what true Islam is all about. Any Islamic scholar worth his salt must engage in serious and extensive reading and research to really understand and appreciate what Islam is truly all about. Doing otherwise is nothing but dangerous to any society he finds himself.
There are various classical examples in the life of the Prophet of Islam that despite that people attacked and called him all sorts of names during his life time, he never responded with violence. One of examples that comes to mind was as stated in my article written about two years ago that :
Another one
“In my article published in the Daily Independent Newspaper of 21st August 2013 titled: IS BOKO HARAM ISLAMIC? I quoted a professing Hindu by name Professor K. S. Ramakrishna Rao who wrote in his book titled: MUAHMMAD, THE PROPHET OF ISLAM as follows:
‘In age of barbarism, the battlefield itself was humanized and strict instructions were issued not to embezzle, not to cheat, not to break trust, not to mutilate, not to kill a minor child or a woman or an old man, not to hew down date palm nor burn it, not to cut down a fruit tree, not to molest monks and persons engaged in worship. His own treatment of his bitter enemies was the noblest example for his followers. At the conquest of Mecca, he stood at the zenith of his power.
Muhummad’s heart overflowed
The city which had tortured him and his followers ,which had driven him and his people into exile and which had unrelentingly persecuted and boycotted him even when he had taken refuge in a place more than 200 miles, that city now lay at his feet. By laws of war he could have justly avenged all the cruelties inflicted on him and his people. But what treatment did he meet out on them? Muhummad’s heart overflowed with milk of love and kindness as he declared. ‘This day, there is no reproof against you and you are all free’.’
The Holy Quran often makes reference to the fact that its messages are for those that have proper knowledge and understanding as well as those that can use their brains to think rationally to comprehend the messages of Islam and its Prophet. May Allah continue to give us the proper understanding of the message of Islam as brought by its Noble Prophet.
NOTE: Anyone is at liberty to disagree with my above submissions in this “Sokoto blasphemy.” I will surely appreciate a balanced, fair and objective rebuttal.
Abdulrasheedibrahim362@gmail.com
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