A fear-struck Nigerian lady, Miss Ogunrinde Opeyemi, has called on the police authorities to investigate a case of threat to her life over an altercation bothering on religion she had with some students while she was schooling in the northern part of the country.

In a message, she raised concern over her safety, noting that her life was under threat from some of her old schoolmates, who were threatening her life, accusing her of blasphemy.

She is pleading for protection from those who have declared her wanted owing to her religious belief.

Miss Ogunrinde, in the message, narrated that her predicament began when she was schooling in Isa Keita College of Education, Dustin-ma, Katsina State.

Ogunrinde, who is the third child and only female among the three children, said, there was a WhatsApp group for the students, where they interact on their school activities, but to her chagrin, some of her colleagues, who were males and Muslims suddenly turned the platform discussions, narrating issue of killing and molesting people as well as imposing their religion on others.

According to her, she was in the frontline criticizing her colleagues, not knowing that they belong to an unknown religious sect.

She said she always told them that it was better to make the group platform for the academic purposes for which it was formed, but not comfortable with her position, the men started threatening to deal with her for having the courage oppose to them.

She noted that the threats got to its head one of the days, when she challenged them not to discuss anything not related to class work on the platform. However, this did not go down well with them, hence, they took a decision to deal with her.

To ensure their threat became a reality, the lady said a group of men came to her father’s house in search for her.

She narrated that the first day they came visiting, she wasn’t around, but their threat message was related to her by her siblings. Realising that her father has a church and that he is a pastor in the same locality, they became more enraged, insisting they have to deal with her.

She said while this was going on, in another school, some students at one Ideal School, a private secondary school in the community, reported to youths outside the school that a teacher was teaching an SS2 class lessons that were ‘blasphemous’ in Islam, which coincided with the threat she was getting.

The youths protested alleged blasphemous statements made by a corps member and in the process, two churches were burnt at Tudun Wada, Funtua Local Government Area of Katsina State by rampaging youths, witnesses have said.

Narrating what happened, she noted that it was as if the people looking for her teamed up with the protesting youths.

She said: “What really helped me on that day was that I was on my menstrual period, I went out to look for what to keep me clean. Not up to 10 minutes after I left, I was hearing people shouting and running helter-skelter.

“Initially, I thought it was an armed robbery attack but on my approach near the church building, I realised it was some guys, calling and shouting my name to come out. They were shouting that they were out to kill me.

“I have to run to a very far place in a missionary house. I presented some videos to the mission house people, who decided to provide me with protection.

“When the pressure and fear of further attacks started coming, I had to escape to a family friend’s house in Lagos with the help of the people in the mission house. I was directed to another mission house which I cannot disclose the location publicly, and I even learned they came to look for me after I escaped to Lagos.”

She added that it was from the mission house in Lagos that she got the help that made her escape from the country for her life.

“As it is now, I don’t know the whereabouts of my other family members,” she added. (Adapted from a Vanguard report)

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