Kano State again! That was the exclamation of a young man when the chilling news filtered that a 74 year old woman and wife of a pastor, Mrs. Bridget Agbahime was beaten to death in Kano by Islamic fundamentalists on the spurious allegation that she blasphemed Prophet Mohammed.
But the real account of what transpired was that the woman has been having a minor disagreement with a neighbour trader over the latter’s regular habit of washing his legs in front of her shop instead of his each time he wanted to pray. Reports had it that on that fateful day, the man after being cautioned as usual to wash his legs in front of his shop, went out and raised false alarm that Bridget had blasphemed Prophet Mohammed.
Unknown to the woman who was busy attending to her customers, some hoodlums masquerading under the guise of their religion, attacked her and were on the verge of killing her husband before he was rescued by the police. The incident has attracted wide outrage and condemnation. The presidency, Kano State government and the Jama’atu Nasir Islam JNI among others have strongly condemned the killing. For the JNI, the act is un-Islamic and perpetrated by miscreants and criminals.
But the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) northern branch is piqued at the frequency of such premeditated killings in Kano and has called for an open trial of the alleged masterminds. The CAN summed up the contradiction in the latest killing: “this type of issue is giving Kano State a bad name and image. So if your enemy is angry with you, the best thing to do is to raise false alarm using religion as a cover to kill you”.
Some years back, another innocent citizen, Gideon Akaluka was in a similar dastardly circumstance killed and decapitated. Then, a group of Muslim fanatics had gone after the head of Akaluka after his wife was alleged to have desecrated the Koran. The police promptly arrested and detained him. But prompted by some faceless leaders, the angry group of fanatics and killers stormed the prison, captured Akaluka and cut off his head.
They were later to put the severed head in a spike and drove around the Kano city with it in the most reprehensible manner. There is no official record of any person apprehended and brought to book for that dastardly act. Elsewhere, there was also the case of Mrs. Oluwatoyin Oluwaseesin, a teacher at a secondary school in Gombe State who was murdered by students of that institution for alleged similar infraction.
Her offence was that while invigilating an examination, she took away a bag which a student had brought to the hall against the rules and put it away on the floor. Incidentally, the bag was said to contain the holy book and this infuriated the students who later regrouped, burnt her car and striped her naked before killing and burning her.
These represent a tip of the iceberg in the orgy of endless religion-induced crises in that part of the country that took serious toll in human lives and property. Curiously, Kano has been at the centre of them all including the devastating Maitatsine riots.
Perhaps, the silence of the authorities each time such killings occur has emboldened more miscreants and hoodlums to take laws into their hands to extract punishment on behalf of their religion. A society that allows any and every body including miscreants to sit in judgment, determine what sentence to award a suspect and proceed to execute same under whatever guise, is a clear invitation to disaster and anarchy.
That is the contradiction the CAN brought to the front burner when it contended that an enemy who has a matter to settle with another can just raise false alarm using religion as a subterfuge to kill his opponent. And that is central to the case of Mrs. Agbahime.
If motives are being imputed into the frequency of these decapitations in Kano, there are sufficient grounds for them. Those worried by such raging feelings and their prospects for the breakdown of law and order must do something now to stem the tide. The section of the country constantly targeted is already tired of spilling the blood of their sons and daughters for this country to stand.
Even then, the landlord of the shop was reported to have before the latest incident, wadded into the disagreement, advising the man to confine himself to his shop. Sadly, it was the same person that went and recruited the hoodlums and street urchins that attacked and slit the throat of the woman under the spurious reason that she was irreverent to his faith.
One can now see the danger in the entire sad episode. The same scenario must have also been at play in the case of the decapitation of Akaluka since nobody was apprehended and punished for that dastardly act.
Those who murdered Agbahime and Akaluka may have been acting out a devious script written for them by some criminal sponsors masquerading under the guise of protecting their religious faith. There could also be other motives to it. It is however, heart-warming that unlike in the case of Akaluka, both the Kano State government and the JNI have come out to denounce the killing claiming it has nothing do with their religion but the handiwork of criminals and urchins.
But, that raises a very fundamental question regarding on whose shoulders the responsibility for determining infractions to the Islamic faith resides. The poser has become pertinent because the impression these acts of lawlessness conveys is that every and any Muslim can determine when their faith has been desecrated and award punishment as he deems fit including taking peoples’ lives.
And we ask, are there no extant processes for apprehending such suspects and making them face trial? Are there no laws to which those accused of one infraction or the other are supposed to be subjected to before punishment can be meted out on them? Why is there always a standing army of fanatics ready to decapitate any time such allegations arise? And on whose behest do they exist? We raise these questions because of the constant recourse to mob justice each time allegations of desecrating the Muslim faith arise in Kano especially now we are being told such killings are the handiwork of criminals.
It would appear there are issues leaders of that faith have to straighten out with their teeming adherents especially the illiterate and those exposed to radical teachings. It is clear from these unfortunate incidents that self-help in matters of this nature is the message that subsists in the minds of many adherents.
What the situation calls for is the intensification of enlightenment campaigns on inter-faith cooperation and co-existence which the JNI said its scholars had embarked upon. Such campaigns must centre round the sanctity of the human life and the fact that nobody has the right to extract capital punishment in the name of his religion. Such messages should be extended to the schools, market places and other places of public interest in the most engaging and aggressive manner.
Muslim scholars and the leadership of the JNI must get it down to their adherents what steps and institutions to contact any time there is suspicion of any infraction to their faith. It is obvious there is still much work to do in this direction. Had there been sincerity and sufficient education on this, we would have been saved the unfortunate situation where Citizen Bridget had to be slaughtered like an animal just for an individual to settle personal scores hiding under religion.
Above all, trial of the suspects in the instant case must be handled openly in such a manner as to drum the message very clearly that the era of jungle justice in such matters has gone for good. Then, we can take seriously the condemnations, claims and assurances pouring in since the killing of Bridget. We are watching!
NATION
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