AFRICA/NIGERIA - Woman lynched for blasphemy: the five suspects acquitted

Kano (Agenzia Fides) - The five men suspected of having lynched a woman accused of blasphemy in the city of Kano, in northern Nigeria have been acquitted. On June 2, Bridget Patience Agbahime, a 74-year-old street vendor of Christian faith, originally from the southern state of Imo, was beaten to death by an angry mob, after a young man started screaming that she had insulted the prophet Muhammad. A fact denied by witnesses and by those who knew the victim as a person respectful of others.
Five people were arrested by the police in connection with the murder of the woman. Yesterday, on November 3, the court in Kano acquitted the five suspects with full formula.
On May 29 in Pandogari, in the Nigerian Atate of Niger, a 24-year-old street vendor, Methodus Chimaije Emmanuel had been killed in a similar way, also after being accused of blasphemy,
The two brutal murders were condemned by the largest Islamic Association of Nigeria, the Jama'atu Nasril Islam, whose leader, the Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa'ad Abubakar, had declared: "These terrible incidents are to be condemned and are to be seen as criminal acts, perpetrated by criminals". (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 04/11/2016)

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