By Williams ABAH
Residents of Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, FCT, have continued to express their anger and fear over gruesome murder of Ahmed Usman, and subsequent burning of his corpse by some irate Muslim faithful on allegation of blasphemy.
Usman, 30, a member of a local vigilante group, was killed in the Lugbe area of the territory on Saturday, June 4, 2022.
Though normalcy has since been restored to the area, residents say they are afraid given the fact that the police were yet to make any arrest and “seem disinterested in pursuing the matter,” a resident told this newspaper.
On Sunday, most of Lugbe and other parts Abuja expressed fear with the large number of commercial motorcyclists and daily hands for hire who are mainly Muslims labelling anybody with little quarrel with them as having blasphemed Prophet Mohammed.
“Truth be told I am really worried about this development (Blasphemy mobbing). See what happened in Dei-Dei and how the FCTA did not act decisively against Okada riders. Anybody with a little issue with any of these okada riders or hired labourers can easily be dubbed as having abused their prophet, and next thing is you are mobbed, people’s property and vehicles vandalised and nothing will be done,” Idowu, a resident of FHA Lugbe told our correspondent.
Ibe, who stays in Phase 4, warned that if no religious sensitization is carried out and the blasphemy fire is allowed to fester, anybody could just be a victim.
“How are we sure that the man (Usman) who was killed blasphemed? He was a vigilante who the man that accused him did not like maybe for being tough and now see the jungle justice that was meted on him. How can a man be killed senselessly and up till now we have not heard that any arrest was made? I am seriously angry and worried about this blasphemy fire now in Abuja,” Ibe said.
On Facebook, Femi Bobade rhetorically asked; “Why must this religious bigots (sic) be allowed to continue to operate as if we are in a barbaric age? This is sad.”
Also, Ojamiren John still on Facebook noted that, “By this trend, no one is safe any longer. Slightest provoking now, na blasphemy, killing n burning things. May God help us.”
Reacting to the development, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, said policing has collapsed in Nigeria because the response time to violent incidents by the Nigeria Police Force is indeterminate due to lack of professionalism and leadership.
The pro-rights group noted that “this incident at the Federal Housing Estates in Lugbe Abuja is the second time Islamic extremists have killed persons framed up for blasphemy or alleged to have committed blasphemy in the nation’s Federal Capital,” alleging that “President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is tolerant of Islamic extremism since the administration lacks the wherewithal and political will to act decisively to arrest those who had killed many Nigerians on similar trumped up allegations by mobs and the killers were left to roam around freely.”
The HURIWA did not spare the Christian Association of Nigeria and the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria for failing to consistently speak out and maintain a principled stand to obtain justice for Christians murdered serially by Islamists.
