Man killed for ‘blasphemy’ in Nigeria

An angry mob in the northern Nigerian city of Sokoto has killed a Muslim man for alleged blasphemy against the Prophet Mohammed, police and local residents said.

Usman Buda, a butcher at the city abattoir, “was mobbed and attacked by some Muslim faithfuls (who) inflicted serious injuries on him”, Sokoto state police spokesman Ahmad Rufa’i said on Sunday.

Death penalty for blasphemy

Blasphemy attracts the death penalty under Islamic law, or sharia, which operates alongside common law in a dozen predominantly Muslim states in northern Nigeria.

In many cases, the accused are killed by mobs without going through any legal process.

The attackers fled when police arrived at the scene and Buda was taken to hospital but he was confirmed dead, Rufa’i said.

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Police are seeking the perpetrators, he said.

Buda, a Salafi Muslim, was stoned and beaten to death by his colleagues following an argument, fellow butcher Isa Danhili said.

“It all started when some young beggars came around asking for alms for the sake of Allah and the Prophet,” he told AFP.

When Buda disapproved of the children begging there was a heated argument, he said.

Buda became emotional and made “unguarded utterances”, which his colleagues deemed insulted the Prophet and “descended on him with stones and sticks”, said Danhili.

A video of the attack widely shared on social media shows a man in a bloodied sleeveless singlet and white rubber boots staggering and falling as a mob throws stones at him amid shouts of “Allahu Akbar”(“God is Great”).

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A voice can be heard in the background shouting “Kill him!” in the Hausa language.

The gruesome lynching on Sunday came a year after a Christian woman was stoned to death in Sokoto on similar accusations.

Similar accusations

In May 2022, a Christian student at Shehu Shagari College in Sokoto was stoned to death and her body burnt by a mob of students after she made a post on social media they deemed insulted the Prophet.

The police arrested two of Deborah Samuel’s attackers after a video of the assault was posted online.

Fellow students then went on a rampage in the city, calling for their release.

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In the days following Samuel’s murder, angry protesters staged violent demonstrations in the northern states of Borno and Bauchi, calling for the death of Christian women they accused of online posts that blasphemed the Prophet, police said.