A mob on Saturday killed a member of a vigilante group in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, for allegedly making a blasphemous statement against Prophet Muhammad.
The action took place in the Timber market section of Fruit Market in the Federal Housing Estate, in the Lugbe area of the city.
The victim was a Muslim and the killing took place at about 1 pm local time on Saturday, according to eyewitnesses. There are varying accounts of what led to the mob action.
One report says the victim was known to be making blasphemous statements, the latest being in the early hours of Saturday. After he bought food in the Timber Market, he was caught by the mob, who used sticks to hit him on the head. He was said to have become unconscious before being stoned to death in front of the Vigilante Office. Then the mob poured petrol on him and set his body on fire with used tyres.
Another account says that the vigilante group had arrested some residents of the Housing Estate for wandering about in the Timber Market in the early hours of Saturday.
According to the report, the arrested residents begged the Vigilante group to free them in the name of Allah, but in the course of that, a member of the team protested and made comments considered to be blasphemous.
This comes about a month after a female student, Deborah Samuel, was killed and her body set ablaze by her fellow students who accused her of blasphemy, in Nigeria’s Northwest state of Sokoto.
