Letting Bridget Agbahime’s killers go unpunished is allowing dangerous extremists with terrorist inclinations to spread their poisonous tentacles, and enabling them morph into groups deadlier than Boko Haram.
The killers of Mrs. Bridget Agbahime must be having a good laugh and feeling emboldened to kill more Agbahimes.
Bridget Agbahime was the 74-year-old woman murdered in Kano by religious zealots.
A few days ago, the five prime suspects of the murder were discharged and acquitted by the Kano State Chief Magistrate, Muhammad Jibril, as advised by the attorney-general of the State.
According to PREMIUM TIMES, “A Kano Magistrates’ Court on Thursday discharged all the five suspects, who allegedly killed a trader, Bridget Agbahime in Kano on June 2 over allegations of blasphemy…
“The legal advice presented to the court, dated June 24, states that there is no case to answer as the suspects are all innocent and orders the court to discharge all the suspects.”
While we may not contest the innocence of the freed suspects or insist that they were the actual killers of Agbahime, since no investigations confirmed so, the questions that now beg for answers are, who are the true killers of Agbahime and when will they ever be brought to book?
Ghosts from hell did not kill Agbahime. Reports have it that she had a heated argument with one of those who killed her in the company of her husband, right in Kofar Wambai Market, Kano.
While some may say it would be a near impossible mission to find those who killed Mrs. Eunice Elisha, the evangelist who was murdered at dawn in Kubwa, Abuja in July, tracing the suspects in Agbahime’s murder should not be so difficult. The crime was committed in broad daylight in a market.
Except, of course, if the suspects have sympathisers in the Nigerian Police, Kano State judiciary and the State government.
Those who think there is no point in advocating justice for Agbahime because apprehending and prosecuting her killers cannot bring her back to life, should put themselves in her family’s shoes.
To sweep this matter under the carpet is acting complicit with murderers – animals in human skin – and encouraging them to continue to kill in the name of religious beliefs. Who knows who their next victim(s) will be?
This is why standing with Agbahime to ensure that she is served justice should be our collective responsibility, irrespective of our differences. Watching some religious bigots trash this case makes us all accomplices. Edmund Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
By the way, where are the women who stood with Sugabelly, the girl who alleged that she was molested by one of the sons of former governor of Kogi State, Abubakar Audu? Where are the women who protested because they felt outraged that Senator Dino Melaye verbally assaulted Senator Oluremi Tinubu in the Senate chamber?
If these groups of women could feel outraged by these aforementioned incidents, the gruesome murder of Agbahime should cause women across Nigeria to rise, demanding justice for her.
Also, the Nigerian Muslim community needs to speak out. If non-Muslim Nigerians must believe that Islam preaches peace, love and justice, then the Muslim community in Nigeria has a point to prove by standing firm, insisting that the killers of Agbahime are fished out and brought to book.
Those who think there is no point in advocating justice for Agbahime because apprehending and prosecuting her killers cannot bring her back to life, should put themselves in her family’s shoes.
Letting Bridget Agbahime’s killers go unpunished is allowing dangerous extremists with terrorist inclinations to spread their poisonous tentacles, and enabling them morph into groups deadlier than Boko Haram.
PREMIUM TIMES columnist, Majeed Dahiru captured this in a piece titled, “Nigeria On the Road to Bangladesh and the Boko Haram In Us”, as follows: “Nigeria is on the road to Bangladesh where honour killings and blasphemy laws are firmly rooted and practiced. Boko Haram is not restricted to the insurgency in the North-East. There is a bit of Boko Haram in some of us. Any Muslim who hates Christians and wishes death unto them is a Boko Haram. Any Muslim who disrupts church services and prevents Christians from worshipping freely is a Boko Haram. Any Muslim who practices honour killing and executes blasphemy laws is a Boko Haram.”
If I may amplify Majeed’s stance, ignoring this act of injustice against Agbahime reveals the Boko Haram in us in a way.
Let’s stand with Agbahime!
Ahmed Oluwasanjo writes from Abuja.
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