By CLARA EGBOGOTA

Imam Abdul-Azeez Onike, the Chief Missioner, Nasrul-Lahi-l-Fatih (NASFAT), has urged law enforcement agents to thoroughly investigate and arrest all culprits involved in the killing of a female student in Sokoto.

Onike made the plea in a statement on Friday, while reacting to the killing of Deborah Samuel, a student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education, Wamako in Sokoto State.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that Deborah Samuel, a student of Shehu Shagari College Education, Sokoto, was reportedly killed on Thursday for allegedly “making blasphemous statements about Prophet Muhammad (SAW)”.

“I urge the law enforcement agents to do a thorough investigation, arrest all culprits and speedily bring justice to bear,” Onike said.

He, however, condemned the reported extra-judicial killing of the female student, saying, “it is extra-judicial punishment is alien to Islam and unacceptable in Islam”.

The NASFAT chief missioner advised against reprisal attack and unnecessary maligning of a particular tribe or religion.

He said that the plea became imperative since jungle justice was “fast becoming rampant in our country.”

While condemning the killing, he said: “To understand the anathema of the sad incident of extra-judicial punishment meted out to a lady in Sokoto recently, which resulted in her death, let us look at the following narration which depicts and represents the expected reaction of any follower of our Noble Prophet Muhammad (saws):

“ ‘Anas Malik reported: While we were in the mosque with Allah’s Messenger, a desert Arab came and stood up and began to urinate in the Mosque.

“ ‘The Companions of Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) said: Stop, stop, but the Messenger of Allah said: Don’t interrupt him; leave him alone.

“ ‘They left him alone, and when he finished urinating, Allah’s Messenger called him and said to him: These Mosques are not the places meant for urine and filth, but are only for the remembrance of Allah.

“ ‘It is a place for prayer and the recitation of the Qur’an, the Holy Prophet then gave orders to one of the people who brought a bucket of water and poured it over.’

“Can you imagine what would be the reactions of some people, if they see someone ignorantly or deliberately urinating inside a Mosque?” he said. (NAN)

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