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Following the gruesome killing of their daughter, Deborah Samuel, the parents of the slain students have vowed that their remaining seven children won’t attend any school again.
Deborah, a 200 level student of Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto was recently lynched by her fellow students for allegedly blaspheming Prophet Muhammad.
Speaking with Punch in an interview, Emmanuel Garba, Deborah’s father, who is a security guard with the Niger State Water and Sanitation, said he paid N120,000 to transport the remains of his daughter from Sokoto State to Niger State.
He said, “I have yet to get a call or message from anyone concerning the incident. Nobody called me; I decided to go on my own. I went to the state CID (Criminal Investigation Department) office and begged them to help me get the corpse so I could bury it because leaving it there might make it decompose. Then they took me to the mortuary, did some paperwork and released the remains to me.”
“I was the one who paid to transport the remains. I was charged N120,000 which I was forced to pay because that was the cheapest I got as the majority of people don’t like transporting corpses.”
The parents of the slain student also said they have left everything in the hand of God, adding that they don’t want anything from government.
“We are not seeking redress in any court over the killing of our daughter. We are firm believers in Christ who always leave everything in the hands of God. No vengeance, nothing. Everything is left to our creator.
“We don’t want anything but it is just unfortunate that we used all our resources to send her to school and now she is dead. She was my eldest child and I have seven others left.”
Asked what she wants the government to do for the family, Deborah’s mother, Alheri Emmanuel, “I have no demands; I don’t want anything but one thing I know is that my children will never go to school again.”
Meanwhile, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has called on every Christian parent across in northern states to discourage sending their children to any school in Sokoto State.
The association in a statement warned the people whose faith permit them to kill to please their God to exercise restraint because “those who tried it in Egypt and their experiences should be enough warning”.
“While CAN does not and will not encourage casting aspersions on any religion or religious leader of any faith, CAN frowns on hiding under the gab of any religious extremism to perpetrate any form of criminality against her members, especially in northern Nigeria.
“God Almighty is not and can never be a weak God for mere mortals to fight and defend Him. On the contrary, it is He who keeps watch and defends us. CAN believes that life is sacred and must never be taken by another unless as directed by the state,” the statement reads in part.
CAN also advised Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State and President Muhammadu Buhari to demonstrate political will and capacity to bring the perpetrators of this criminality to justice.