The former Vice President of Nigeria and presidential aspirant on the platform of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Abubakar Atiku, on Friday 13th May 2022, stated that every tweet on his official social media handles must get his approval before publication.

This came in response of his reaction towards the 200-Level student, Deborah Samuel gruesomely murdered in Sokoto State on Thursday 12th May 2022, by a mob over alleged blasphemy.

It could be recalled that Atiku had earlier condemned the barbaric killing on his Twitter handle but later deleted the post, having published a disclaimer, saying he never approved the message, hence knew nothing about it. He consequently sacked his media aide who was purportedly behind the publication.

It’s noteworthy that the U-turn made by Atiku, which has been condemned by several Nigerians in various quarters, came as a result of the threats he received on the Twitter platform. Some seeming Sokoto indigenes had threatened failure over his presidential ambition, saying he had lost millions of votes in the said state for condemning Deborah’s killing.

Atiku, during his consultative visit to Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State on Friday at the Government House, Benin, on Friday, same day he took the actions, disclosed that every tweet on his official social media pages must be approved by him prior to publication.

According to the erstwhile Vice-President, “Every tweet has to get my expressed approval but this one didn’t, so I asked them to take it down.

“I took a stand about Sharia law and was abused, thrown stones at, but how long did it last? Despite that, I didn’t change my position on it. I am not afraid to take a stand on critical issues.” he said.

Speaking further as regards his presidential race, he stated that investment in education was key. He said, “If you can recall what the PDP government did then while in power, we created the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFUND).

“We also set up the Primary School Education Fund and Education Tax Fund to enable us (PDP Federal Government) provide sufficient money to both state and local governments to enable them to have sufficient money to invest in primary and secondary education.

“We also passed the law to make education compulsory for every Nigerian child, from primary to secondary schools”. he said.

Responding to the issue of zoning for the PDP presidential ticket, Atiku said that zoning was not jettisoned by the party.

On the issue of getting a running mate, he responded that he would sit down with the party to agree on a running mate for the 2023 presidential election.

By this singular display, Atiku has shown and proven that he is a religious bigot. Even if the post wasn’t approved by his person, as claimed, did it call for deletion?

For the fact that the killing of Deborah by the mob was indeed condemnable, judging it from all angles, should have been enough reason to allow the post to fly as much as it could. Had it been the statement made in the post wasn’t justifiable or reasonable, then Atiku’s reaction would have been commendable.

He can scold the media aide, if truly the post never sought his approval, not to delete it outrightly, simply because he received a myriad of threats over his presidential ambition.

This action of Atiku has made Nigerians understand that many who are currently clamouring to emerge as the president of a heterogeneous country like Nigeria come 2023, do not actually deserve the honour being sought.

“….The Islamic religion is not a primitive religion that allows its adherents to take the law into their own hands and to commit jungle justice. Instead, there is a judicial system in Islamic law that hears and determines cases including the trial of criminal offenses and anybody accused of committing an offense against the religion or against a fellow Muslim brother should be taken to the court (either a Sharia or a secular/common law court) for adjudication. It is only when a person is convicted and sentenced by a court of law that he will be liable to a punishment which will be carried out by an appropriate authority (i.e. the prison)”

~His Lordship I. T. Muhammad JSC (now CJN) in the case of SHALLA VS STATE (2007) LPELR-3034(SC).

In July 1999, in the Kardi village of Kebbi State, one Abdullah was accused of blasphemy; insulting the prophet Muhammad, he was reported to some Muslim faithful who formed a mob and decided to attack the accused, they dealt him blows with sticks, bottles and even machete, till they hacked him to death. 

The mobsters (about five of them) were later arrested and charged to court for the offense of murder and culpable homicide of Abdullah in the Kebbi State High Court. 

Their defense was that they have justification for the killing of Abdullah (religious justification), pointing to the sections of the Quran that demand that anybody who insults the prophet MUHAMMED should be killed. 

They were convicted of murder and sentenced to die by hanging in the trial court. They appealed to the Appellate court and the appeal court upheld the judgment of the trial court and they further appealed to the Supreme Court. 

The case went on from the lower courts till it got to the supreme in 2007 and the Supreme Court upheld the judgments of the lower courts. In one of the dictums of one of the justices, Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, (who is now the Chief Justice of Nigeria); he states thus; 

“In my view, it is the appellants rather than the deceased who committed an offense against Islamic or Sharia by their unjustified action which represents to the public that Sharia is an uncivilized and primitive system that allows or permits the killing of people without complying with the due process of law, the Islamic religion is not a primitive religion that allows its adherents to take the law into their own hands and to commit jungle justice. Instead, there is a judicial system in Islamic law that hears and determines cases including the trial of criminal offenses and anybody accused of committing an offense against the religion or against a fellow Muslim brother should be taken to the court (either a Sharia or a secular/common law court) for adjudication. It is only when a person is convicted and sentenced by a court of law that he will be liable to a punishment which will be carried out by an appropriate authority (i.e. the prison)”.

The Justices of the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the judgments of the lower courts stating that the accused persons committed the offense of murder and culpable homicide which carries the capital punishment of death sentence. They were all; every one of them that partook in the killing of Abdullah were sentenced to death. 

On this note, those that are justifying the killing of Deborah Yakubu on the ground that the killers are carrying out what their religion requires them to do should educate themselves that everyone that is involved in the death of Deborah Yakubu has committed the offense of murder and culpable homicide and stating categorically from the judicial precedent in the case of SHALLA V State, they will all be sentenced to death and their religion will not come to their rescue.