By Emma Njoku
Civil rights advocacy organisation, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called for the arrest and prosecution of Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, over the gruesome murder of a Christian student, Miss Deborah Samuel Yakubu, in the state.
In a petition to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hagues, Netherlands, dated May 23, 2023, HURIWA is demanding the arrest, prosecution of Tambuwal, over his alleged wilful failure to arrest and prosecute Deborah’s killers.
The petition signed by the association’s National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, described the refusal to bring Deborah’s killers to justice as a crime against humanity and, therefore, asked the ICC “to use the service of InterPol to arrest Mr. Tambuwal immediately he entered Europe.”
Deborah Samuel, a Christian female student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto, was gruesomely murdered in cold blood by a mob of male Muslim fanatics, said to be students of the same institution.
She was accused of blasphemy by the hoodlums, for allegedly referring to Islam as “this nonsense religion”, following a minor argument with some of her classmates.
HURIWA accused governor Tambuwal of failing to carry out his constitutional duty of ordering the arrest and prosecution of the culprits.
The group stated: “The governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Aminu Tambuwal, under whose direct jurisdiction the crime took place, and whose duty it was to arrest and prosecute these criminals, was clearly unenthusiastic to carry out his constitutional duties in this respect.
“Obviously, with the general elections a few months away at the time, the governor was clearly not ready to incur the wrath of his largely Muslim population by appearing to support the act of ‘blasphemy’ against holy prophet Mohammed.
“…It is for this reason that we, at HURIWA, decided to petition the International Criminal Court (ICC) to step into the matter, through the office of the prosecutor, and do the needful, by arresting and prosecuting the said errant governor, under the auspices of the Treaty of Rome, which came into force on the first day of July 2001.”