On Thursday, May 12, 2022, a viral video showed the brutal murder of Deborah Emmanuel, a 200 Level student of Shehu Shagari College of Education.
In the video, some students of the college on Thursday, violently stoned Deborah to death and later set her ablaze over an allegation of blasphemy against Muhammed, a prophet of Islam.
Following the incident which went viral on social media, Sokoto State Government ordered the immediate closure of the college and ordered students to vacate the campus.
According to reports gathered by a Geeky Nigeria correspondent, it was revealed that the agitations started when someone sent a broadcast message to a WhatsApp group of the students, to which deceased Deborah was a member.
The message posted in the group had some morbid terms, as it requested members to share with other groups or evil will befall them.
On reading the message, deceased Deborah complained that such messages should not be sent to a WhatsApp group created for the sharing of important information about tests and assignments.
“Send us important information. This group was not created for you to send useless information. It was created for you to send past questions if there is a test or an assignment. It is not for you to send useless information. Which prophet?”, late Deborah was quoted as saying in a voice note, sent as reply.
Although she later deleted the voice note, other members of the group had shared it among their friends in the school, and eventually sparked tension among the students on the campus.
Further reports revealed that when the students tried to mob Deborah, the school’s security men came to her rescue. They informed the police when the situation got out of control.
An eyewitness at the incident said the police couldn’t rescue Deborah as the mob kept hurling stones and objects at the police and the shelter where she was kept.
When word got to the information commissioner, Isa Galadanchi, he said the state governor, Aminu Tambuwal, has directed the ministry of higher education and other relevant authorities to commence investigations into the remote and immediate causes of the incident and report back to the government.
“Meanwhile, Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has called on the people of the state to remain calm and maintain peace as the government would take appropriate actions on the findings of the investigations by the relevant authority,” he said.